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.