I just had my app rejected by Apple. It is an App for our Local Public Radio Station. Apparently you CAN NOT receive donations from 'within' the app, but a link to a website is ok. (I had a page with a Paypal button conveniently placed in the app) Corrected, Resubmitted, just letting you know if you get near the same situation. Cheers! -- Smug Rejection Text from Apple: Reasons 21.2: The collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS 21.2 We found that your app includes the ability to collect charitable donations within the app, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines While donations may not be taken within an application, it is possible to provide a donation link to your web site. This link should launch Safari to collect the donation. You could also add a link to send an SMS to make the donation. We understand that directing your user outside of your app may not be the user experience you prefer to offer your users. However it is a common experience in a variety of iOS apps. And in the case of collecting donations for charities - regardless of whether the donations are in cash or another form - it is also the required user experience. We encourage you to make the necessary changes to your app and resubmit it for review.

Maybe you could have an in-app purchase of 'karma' or something! ie just word it differently

That's kind of funny. I wonder if it would work, lol! I like that idea... And it would give me some in-app experience I don't currently possess. Cheers! -- Smug

If you don't mind giving Apple 30% of your donations....

Oh. Forget that, lol! Cheers! -- Smug

Yup, And to be even more specific, you can't load the donation webpage in a webView. You need to kick the user out to Safari. Luckily Buzztouch has an easy way to do that. :)

Another thing to think about is that the more steps you require users to take and the less fun you make the experience the less conversion you get, so have to weigh that against the extra costs.

I had this problem. Apple and their strict policies are annoying at times . Adam

I really don't understand this policy. They won't allow you to use the in-app purchase for anything that doesn't provide a benefit to the app (ie content), but won't allow you to use other methods in your app to collect donations either. They say they want apps that are good user experiences and not simply web apps, yet they do something like this. It really makes no sense unless someone at Apple had a bad experience with a charity one time and decided to hate on all of them from then on.

Can't you remove and then add later once published?

I was wondering about that too, but to be honest, it was such a pain to get my company registered as an Apple Developer, that if I were to get booted out, it would pretty much be the end of it. 'Could I' ?, probably. 'Will I' ?, probably not. Cheers! -- Smug

Just to let you guys know… You know they rejected my app for donations; that's the whole thread. But as Stobe so accurately pointed out, BT has a quick and easy way around this. It didn't take me two minutes to add a CustomURL plugin, add the correct URL for Safari, and publish my changes. Another two minutes to test. Reloaded the new config. Yep, It was perfect. About 10 minutes later, I resubmitted the App. 7 days later got rejected for the same thing. It may very well be that they don't 'refresh' the app. Or maybe it depends on the reviewer. But regardless, I resubmitted 'with the changes in the configuration' and it was still rejected. I rebuilt and recompiled my binary with new configuration, submitted it, and was approved. Can't say they will, can't say they won't. But I can say 'watch out'; if they reject you, take the extra time and rebuild your binary with a new config just to be sure. Cheers! -- Smug

I believe its because then Apple would have to take proof from the developers that they are or represent a reputable organization to protect the end users from being scammed. Have to say its a liability issue.

No idea, since Apple won't give a reason for their policy. But if that's the reason, it's a pretty weak one in my opinion. Apple isn't processing payments, and they aren't representing validity of any developer that submits an app with them. I don't see how they would be held liable for anything.