Title: Vacation Donation Bank
Approved by:
Date Approved:
Effective Date: 06/03/2019
Responsible Official: Vice President of Human Resources
Responsible University Office: HR Employee Relations
Revision History: 07/01/2016
Related Legislation and University policies:
Review Period: 5 years
Date of Last Review:
Relates to: benefits eligible executive staff, senior staff, and staff who have successfully completed orientation
Exclusions: term employees and any executive staff, senior staff, or staff who are not benefits eligible or who have not successfully completed orientation
Policy Statement
The university recognizes that, at times, employees may exhaust their paid time off and experience a prolonged, unpaid medical leave of absence due to the employee’s own health condition. The Employee Vacation Donation Bank is a voluntary program that allows eligible employees to donate earned vacation time to fellow employees who are on approved, unpaid personal medical leaves (FMLA or Additional Medical Leave) for four (4) weeks or longer. This does not apply to medical leaves to take care of family members.
This program applies to staff employees who meet the eligibility requirements as detailed in this policy. The donation and receipt of paid time shall be completely voluntary and kept confidential. This policy establishes the process and parameters by which employees may donate to and receive vacation time from the Vacation Donation Bank.
Vacation Donation Bank Donors
To be eligible to donate vacation time into the Vacation Donation Bank:
- The donor must be an executive staff, senior staff, or staff employee.
- The donor must have successfully completed the three (3) month orientation period.
- The donor must be in good standing (i.e. performance level of Average or better, not currently in Positive Corrective Action, has not been in Positive Corrective Action in the past twelve (12) months) with the university.
All donations to the Vacation Donation Bank are strictly voluntary. Donors are not otherwise compensated for any donated vacation time. Once donations are made to the Vacation Donation Bank they cannot be rescinded.
The donor may only donate to their respective school/management center’s Vacation Donation Bank and may not donate to a specific person.
The donor may donate a maximum of 50% of their annual vacation time accrual and may only donate vacation time they have already earned. Donations can only be made in full-day increments.
The donor may only donate time between July 1st and August 15th each year. Terminating employees cannot donate unused vacation days to the Vacation Donation Bank.
To donate vacation time, the donor may visit the Vacation Donation Bank Website in HCM at Self Service/Payroll/Vacation Donation. Once submitted, the donor’s reduced available vacation time will be reflected in HCM after the monthly accrual run.
Vacation Donation Bank Recipients
To be eligible to receive donated time from the Vacation Donation Bank:
- The recipient must be an executive staff, senior staff, or staff employee and has successfully completed orientation.
- The recipient must be in good standing (i.e. performance level of Average or above, and not currently in Positive Corrective Action, and has not been in Positive Corrective Action in the past twelve (12) months).
- The recipient may request donated time from the Vacation Donation Bank if they have already exhausted all vacation and sick balances and are currently taking unpaid approved personal medical leave; or they will soon exhaust all vacation and sick balances and will then otherwise go on unpaid approved medical leave.
- There must be available donated time in the recipient’s respective school’s or management center’s Vacation Donation Bank. Vacation days are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The recipient may only receive donated time from their respective school’s/management center’s Vacation Donation Bank. Payments cannot be charged to a sponsored research project. Therefore, vacation payments will be charged to the recipient’s home department.
The recipient may only request and receive donated time from the Vacation Donation Bank in full-day increments. Employees will not be awarded time from the Vacation Donation Bank if they have received six (6) weeks Paid Parental Leave within the last twelve months.
Each recipient may only receive a maximum of ten (10) days per fiscal year, and no more than one (1) award per personal medical leave.
To request donated time from the Vacation Donation Bank, the employee must fill out Vacation Donation Bank Request Form and submit the completed form to for review. The recipient will be notified of the request’s approval or rejection by Employee Relations. If approved, Employee Relations will notify the Payroll Office. The recipient’s increased available vacation time will be reflected in HCM if they have not yet begun unpaid leave. If the recipient is already on unpaid leave when their request is approved, the recipient will receive an off-cycle check.
If the recipient does not use all of the received donated time from the Vacation Donation Bank, they must notify Employee Relations at and the leftover time will be returned to the respective school’s/management center’s Vacation Donation Bank. Failing to notify Employee Relations of leftover time may result in corrective action, up to and including termination.
The Human Resources Department thanks those employees who choose to donate any available time to the Employee Vacation Bank in recognition of the needs of their peers. Such generosity to help fellow employees is reflective of the strong sense of community the university strives to represent.