Built for charity budgets
Leave management for nonprofits and charities
Track staff and volunteer time off in one shared calendar, without spending donor money on software you don't need — free for up to 15 people, then a flat $0.75 per user per month.
Most nonprofits run lean: a small core staff, a rota of volunteers, and a finance committee that questions every line item. Leave tracking ends up in a shared spreadsheet that quietly goes wrong, or in a costly HR suite priced for corporates with budgets you don't have. Absenca is the dedicated leave layer in between — accurate, simple to run, and priced so it barely registers on the books.
It's free for up to 15 people, which covers a lot of charities outright. Grow past that and it's a flat $0.75 per user per month — no per-seat tiers designed to climb, no enterprise minimums, and no credit card to get started. Every euro stays pointed at the mission.
Free for the team you actually have
Up to 15 people on the full product — calendar, approvals, accruals, holidays and reports. Many small charities never pay a cent; beyond 15 it's a flat $0.75 per user per month.
Staff and volunteers, side by side
Keep paid staff and volunteers in separate groups with their own leave types and rules, but see everyone's availability on one shared calendar so coverage is never a guess.
Simple enough for one admin
No implementation project and no dedicated HR person required. A single office manager or operations lead can set it up in an afternoon and run it in minutes a week.
EU data residency, GDPR-friendly
Your people's data is held in the EU, which matters for charities answerable to funders, trustees and the people they support.
Track staff and volunteers without mixing them up
Nonprofits rarely have a clean, uniform headcount. You might have a handful of full-time staff, several part-timers on funded contracts, and volunteers who give a day here and there. Absenca lets you give each group its own leave types and rules — paid annual leave and sick leave for staff, simple availability or unpaid-time markers for volunteers — while keeping one calendar everyone can read.
Part-time and term-time hours are pro-rated automatically, so someone on two days a week gets the right entitlement without anyone reaching for a calculator. When a grant-funded role ends, that person simply stops accruing — the numbers stay honest.
Spend on the mission, not the software
The pricing exists because charity budgets are real. Free for up to 15 people means a lot of organisations run Absenca at no cost indefinitely. Past that, a flat $0.75 per user per month is, as of 2026, well below the $3–5 per user that broader HR and leave tools commonly list — and there's no minimum seat count or annual commitment forcing you to overpay.
Established tools like BambooHR or larger HR suites do far more than leave, and that's their strength — but if all you need is to stop chasing time-off in a spreadsheet, you shouldn't pay HRIS prices for it. Absenca does the leave job thoroughly and stays out of your budget the rest of the time.
Accountable by default
Trustees and funders expect good governance, even on something as everyday as time off. Every request and approval is recorded with a clear audit trail, balances are always current, and you can export reports to CSV, Excel or PDF for a board pack or a funder review in a couple of clicks.
Data is held in the EU and the product is built to be GDPR-friendly, so the people and personal data your charity is responsible for are handled with the care your stakeholders expect.
Why teams choose Absenca
- Free for up to 15 people — covers many charities outright
- Flat $0.75/user/month beyond 15, no minimums or annual lock-in
- Separate rules for paid staff and volunteers, one shared calendar
- Pro-rated entitlements for part-time and term-time roles
- EU data residency and GDPR-friendly, with full audit trails
- Set up by one person in an afternoon — no HR department needed
Frequently asked questions
- Is Absenca free for nonprofits?
- It's free for everyone up to 15 people, which covers a lot of charities outright — the full product, with no credit card required. Beyond 15 it's a flat $0.75 per user per month, with no minimum seat count or annual commitment.
- Can we track volunteers as well as paid staff?
- Yes. You can keep paid staff and volunteers in separate groups with their own leave types and rules — for example paid annual leave for staff and simple availability markers for volunteers — while seeing everyone on one shared calendar.
- Do we need someone technical or an HR person to run it?
- No. A single office manager or operations lead can set Absenca up in an afternoon and run it in a few minutes a week. There's no implementation project and no dedicated HR role required.
- Where is our data stored?
- Your data is held in the EU and Absenca is built to be GDPR-friendly, with full audit trails on requests and approvals — useful for charities answerable to trustees and funders.
- How does Absenca compare to a full HR system like BambooHR?
- Broader HR suites do far more than leave — payroll, onboarding, performance — and that's their strength. Absenca focuses only on leave and absence, does that job thoroughly, and costs a fraction of what those tools typically list (roughly $3–5 per user as of 2026). Many nonprofits run Absenca for time off and keep, or skip, a wider HR tool for the rest.