Donate to Charity via In App Purchases

Hi,

It could be possible to create certain in-game items that when purchased, would result in the money (or a significant portion of it), going to a charity fund which could then be passed onto carefully selected not-for-profit organisations.

I don't know what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives Supercell run, but with the massive success of Clash of Clans, it could be a great way for both the developers and players to give something back.

It may be that the items wouldn't necessarily be crucial to gameplay, for example a hospital where the Barb King goes to get better - but it doesn't make a difference to his regeneration time. Or perhaps there could be an option to buy charity gems - you may need twice as much of them for the same effect, but 50% of the cost goes to the charity fund. Or perhaps make some items available to acquire in the usual way, or by a one-off payment. E.g. Level 6 Archers: 7.5 mil elixir or a $5 donation to the charity fund. I'm sure Apple might be persuaded to forfeit their usual cut for charity donations too...?

I suppose I'm suggesting the 'gamification' of charitable donations; by baking it into an existing game and encouraging people to donate to charity using the same methods that are proving such an effective way of making profits for software developers. It may even enhance the gameplay even further and widen the appeal! Or at least help some of us justify how much time we spend in-game...

Anyhow, I've rambled on enough. I'm sure you get the gist and there are many intelligent people out there who are bound to have other suggestions and ideas on how to expand on this.

Thank you for reading and I hope some of you find this of interest.


Happy clashing,



Tom. (TheBeserkers)

Trust me supercell wont want this

30% would automatically go to the Apple charity.

It probably won't happen but it is a noble idea. I like the thought.

Thanks for your comments. It seems that the idea fell on deaf ears for the most part!

If SC isn't busy diving into pools of money and they feel generous, maybe. Maybe. But for the moment I don't think SC is interested in this, ;P

Giving to charity IS a good idea - but I havn't seen any successful online games that have an in game charity donation feature.

Giving in the UK directly to a charity means the charity get's 125% of the money (with the tax claim back)
Giving via a game would mean a charity would get max 70% of the money (as pointed out above) minus Apple's cut

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daddy

Giving to charity IS a good idea - but I havn't seen any successful online games that have an in game charity donation feature.

Giving in the UK directly to a charity means the charity get's 125% of the money (with the tax claim back)
Giving via a game would mean a charity would get max 70% of the money (as pointed out above) minus Apple's cut

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That's a very good point. I'm sure the developers could code in a method for users to indicate they're a UK taxpayer and reclaim the tax. I've also dropped a note to Apple to see if they would consider not taking a 30% cut for charitable donations via in-app purchases. Even if both of these couldn't be implemented, then I would hope that 70% of something would be better than 100% of nothing. So far I'm not getting much of a response from Supercell, Apple or an iOS game developer I approached with this idea...

This is really noble idea! I respect you totally.

I was thinking I want some pointless building/decoration in my village too.
I even started a thread about it.
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...village-ladies

After reading your idea of charity buildings, I realized that I actually would pay real money for those building/decoration if it goes to charity.
I totally support this idea and hope they will give serious consideration.

There must be many people who think the same as I do.

Giving to charity is a noble venture, but with the App store being controlled by Apple as much as it is, Even if Supercell said they wanted xx% or xx amount of IAP for this week/month to go to charity xx the biggest problem is it is not allowed. Apple prevents this in any sort of automated way, you can't even advertise it within the App store.

http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/fund...w-report-says/

http://www.macstories.net/news/apple...n-iphone-apps/

http://appreview.tumblr.com/post/150...rity-donations

Quote:

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Originally Posted by twister

Even if Supercell said they wanted xx% or xx amount of IAP for this week/month to go to charity xx the biggest problem is it is not allowed. Apple prevents this in any sort of automated way, you can't even advertise it within the App store.

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Are you sure ? I feel like it's indeed forbidden to make direct donations to charities through IAP (and I understand how Apple doesn't want to bother to all it involves in terms of validation of the charities, not applying their 30%, …) but I think that if it's Supercell who just wants to redistribute a part of their income from IAP (ie indirect donation), Apple can't prevent them from doing so !

Guidelines aren't that precise and only mention :
" Apps that seek to raise money for such causes must be free on the App Store and may only collect funds outside of the app, such as via Safari or SMS" (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines)