News

Charity CEO launches campaign against Apple donation policy 2

IT | Gareth Jones | 10 Feb 2010

An anti-bullying charity is leading an online campaign to try to force Apple to allow charities to include donate buttons in iPhone applications.

Bullying UK chief executive and social media expert John Carnell raised the issue on his blog after app creation site AppMakr rejected his concept for his version II of the Bullying UK app. AppMakr stated that: “Apple tends to reject Apps that have content related to donations or charity.”

Writing in his social media blog TechnicaVita, Carnell said: “We need a suitable show of support to get Apple to reconsider this odd decision and show them that this makes them look very charity/non-profit unfriendly.

“Sure I get that they may not want normal developers having donation buttons but charities are an exception and Apple should recognise that.”

He added: “Apple seem to think that charities should 'sell' their apps in the store so Apple gets its 30 per cent cut; to say that it's distasteful that Apple should expect a cut from charity/non-profit apps is an understatement.

“So what should Apple do? In my view either remove the donation button restriction from registered non-profit/charity apps or guarantee that Apple will pass along 100 per cent of its fee from any 'pay' applications.”

The blog has received 79 retweets on Twitter and been shared six times on Facebook. The Twitter hashtag for the campaign is #appledonatefail.

Apple declined to comment.

Charity CEO launches campaign against Apple donation policy

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Matthew
Manager
Ham Inc
8 Mar 2010

And how exactly would this work in practice, eh?

Anyone with a developer licence would be able to claim they are part of a charity, sell a "donation" app on the App Store, and reap the 100 per cent profit for themselves.

Another "nice" idea that has no basis in practicality...

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Anon
Manager
Civil Society Media
12 Feb 2010

Very arrogant that being a charity makes him/his cause 'better' than "normal" developers.

a) It's a free world - if he doesn't want to play by Apple's rules, go somewhere else - there are a growing number of app communities out there for the myriad of smart phone OSs.

b) Private developers will most often have donate buttons on their websites if they're giving their software away for Free, and rely on goodwill of users to donate an amount to support upkeep and further development. If Apple's revenue model for their app store doesn't support that because it is a commercial organisation with a huge cost base and shareholders to answer to amongst other things (but maybe not callous and crass like he is inferring), there can be little justification for an exception for charities - it's not "distasteful", it's common sense, nobody automatically 'deserves' a free ride because of what they are.

[Reply]