Leave Bank Donations

Donate your Use-or-Lose Leave: Deadline January 11, 2025

To donate leave, contributors can select the "Donate to Leave Bank” tab in the left hand navigation bar in the Integrated Time and Attendance System (ITAS).

Any Federal civilian employee (except postal service employees) can donate leave, including those in other agencies. You DO NOT need to be an NIH Leave Bank member to donate to the Leave Bank.

Your donations have a significant impact on your NIH-co-workers, like the recipient below:

My mother was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer a few months after I started working at NIH. The Leave Bank allowed me to be able to continue to work, but still assist her until her last breath. Without the Leave Bank, I would not have been able to be there for the person who had always been there for me. I am so grateful for the generosity and compassion of my NIH colleagues who contributed and donated their leave so I could provide care for my loved one. This is an excellent benefit and program for all of us and I encourage everyone to participate!

Read more of their Leave Bank success stories here.

Types of donations

  • Regular donations can be made at any time.
  • Use-or-Lose donations must be made by the end of the current leave year, January 11, 2025. Most federal employees may only carryover 240 hours of annual leave from year to year. Any hours over the 240 hour maximum are considered Use-or-Lose hours.

Items to note

  • A leave donation does not designate an individual as a member. To become a member, you must request membership.
  • Once a donation has been deducted from your account, it cannot be returned.
  • Donated leave remaining to the Leave Bank as credit at the end of the year will roll over to the next year.
  • Only annual leave and restored annual leave may be donated to the Leave Bank. Sick leave cannot be donated.
  • A waiver of an employee's annual membership contribution will NOT be granted to those who make a use-or-lose annual leave donation.

How to donate

Non-NIH employees: Call 301-443-8393 or email LeaveBank@od.nih.gov.

NIH employees: Use the Integrated Time and Attendance System (ITAS). Follow steps below:

  1. Log in
  2. In the tool bar, select “Donate Leave to Leave Bank”
  3. In the “Hours Type” dropdown, select type of hours to donate
  4. Enter the number of hours to donate (this must be less than or equal to your available hours)
  5. Optional – You can donate to an approved recipient as long as they are not your supervisor. Enter their name in the “Comments” field
  6. Click “OK”
  7. Click “OK” on the confirmation screen
  8. The “Donate to Leave Bank” screen will display the new donation

If you cannot access ITAS, please contact the Leave Bank Office at 301-443-8393 or email LeaveBank@od.nih.gov.

Donation limitations

There are limitations on contributions of annual leave. These limitations may be waived by your Leave Approving Official (LAO) if you:

  • don’t have leave planned that would conflict with the request; AND
  • understand that your request exceeds the limitations and would still like to donate leave

How to receive a waiver: Submit the donation request through ITAS. An e-mail will be sent to your LAO for approval.

Questions

Please visit our Leave Bank homepage for more information.

For questions, email LeaveBank@od.nih.gov or call (301) 443-8393.

Top Leave Bank FAQs

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