Holiday season is always a time for giving—but not on your iPhone.
That’s because Apple doesn’t allow nonprofits or other organizations to include a direct donation system in the phone’s applications, so the only way to give is to go to a charity’s Web site, a cumbersome process with a small phone-size keyboard.
The only question: Is it a mere glitch or a natural extension of Apple’s policy that is generally indifferent to nonprofits and philanthropy?
The company’s policies toward philanthropy and nonprofits are growing increasingly problematic as Apple products become an ever larger part of our media and communications landscape.
The iPhone controversy started to appear in the general press after the social-media expert Beth Kanter wrote on her popular blog that Apple’s restrictive donation policy made her so mad that she was thinking of trading in her iPhone for an Android, a phone that uses Google software.
She also started an online petition that has generated more than 10,000 signatures demanding that Apple loosen its restrictions on charitable donations through iPhone apps.
LER +
Vincent Stehle is a regular columnist for The Chronicle of Philanthropy
and a philanthropic consultant in New York.
That’s because Apple doesn’t allow nonprofits or other organizations to include a direct donation system in the phone’s applications, so the only way to give is to go to a charity’s Web site, a cumbersome process with a small phone-size keyboard.
The only question: Is it a mere glitch or a natural extension of Apple’s policy that is generally indifferent to nonprofits and philanthropy?
The company’s policies toward philanthropy and nonprofits are growing increasingly problematic as Apple products become an ever larger part of our media and communications landscape.
The iPhone controversy started to appear in the general press after the social-media expert Beth Kanter wrote on her popular blog that Apple’s restrictive donation policy made her so mad that she was thinking of trading in her iPhone for an Android, a phone that uses Google software.
She also started an online petition that has generated more than 10,000 signatures demanding that Apple loosen its restrictions on charitable donations through iPhone apps.
LER +
Vincent Stehle is a regular columnist for The Chronicle of Philanthropy
and a philanthropic consultant in New York.
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