I realize this is a long shot putting this in the Ionic forum but if any any has experience with the App Store and donations for non profits via a 3rd party app any help is appreciated.
I have multiple nonprofits on my app/platform (limited company) and I would like to accept donations for them.
I use Stripe Connect and the money would go direct from my app to the nonprofits Stripe account without any fees taken.
Is this possible with the current App Store guidelines? Do I need to get each nonprofit on my platform to pay for an Apple Developer license and register as an approved nonprofit on benevity?
Some of them are already registered on benevity and a couple already have a developer license too.
Or is this not possible at all and I need to direct them outside of the mobile app to donate?
TBA if I have to help 1000 nonprofits set up developer accounts and register a merchant id I would prefer to just use the web.
I would also offer Apple pay as a payment option as this is a requirement.
In 3.2.1 below I would be the 3rd party app.
3.2.1 (vi) Approved nonprofits may fundraise directly within their own apps or third-party apps, provided those fundraising campaigns adhere to all App Review Guidelines and offer Apple Pay support. These apps must disclose how the funds will be used, abide by all required local and federal laws, and ensure appropriate tax receofit.ipts are available to donors. Additional information shall be provided to App Review upon request. Nonprofit platforms that connect donors to other nonprofits must ensure that every nonprofit listed in the app has also gone through the nonprofit approval process. Learn more about becoming an approved nonpr
It’s an area I’m exploring as well, particularly with a focus on implementing in a kiosk-style setup for in-person fundraising events.
I have a few questions based on your experience:
Have you directly interacted with Apple regarding the approval process for collecting donations within your app? If so, what feedback did you receive?
Were you required to have each nonprofit listed in your app obtain approval through Benevity? Did Apple mandate that each nonprofit have its own Apple Developer Program membership and Merchant ID, or is there flexibility for a platform like yours to manage donations on their behalf?
How did you navigate the integration of Stripe Connect with Apple Pay? Apple Pay thorugh tapping reader is already supported by Stripe. Were there any specific challenges or requirements from Apple in this regard?
Note I am not currently using apple pay as I have not implemented this. I am using Stripe Elements and Stripe Checkout.
Have you directly interacted with Apple regarding the approval process for collecting donations within your app? If so, what feedback did you receive?
Yes via app review. I had it rejected for my personal apple dev account not being registered via Benevity. The only option seemed to be to either create an apple account for each customer and an app for each customer or to take the donation payment outside the app via the browser. I am still planning on to looking into solutions around this.
I have one app with many customers which takes the donation outside the app (not ideal) and some white label apps - one for each customer with the customers registered with Benevity and taking the donation inside the app.
Were you required to have each nonprofit listed in your app obtain approval through Benevity? Did Apple mandate that each nonprofit have its own Apple Developer Program membership and Merchant ID, or is there flexibility for a platform like yours to manage donations on their behalf?
I am still looking into ways to make this work with the multiple nonprofits within one app. Basically I put it in the too hard review later basket. I am going to look into it more when I try to implement Apple Pay later this year. I am hopeful it is possible to do.
How did you navigate the integration of Stripe Connect with Apple Pay? Apple Pay thorugh tapping reader is already supported by Stripe. Were there any specific challenges or requirements from Apple in this regard?
I am not using Apple Pay yet. I delayed the implementation as I need to do some major upgrades to the app package versions which I will do later this year.
I would like to stay updated on your progress as I will be revisiting this later this year.
I am also looking at using portable Stripe card readers to take donations but this would be outside the app store.