heartsome
warm-hearted; cheering; giving comfort and care to the people around you.
At most non-profits, one person does HR on the side. No HR department, no big system - just someone who, alongside their actual job, also keeps the contracts, answers leave requests and handles applications.
That works. Until it doesn't.
Take sick leave. You report someone ill and think: sorted. And then, weeks later, it turns out you should have filed a UWV report. Or that the occupational health service you thought you worked with has changed its name twice. Or that you can no longer remember which portal you were supposed to log into.
It goes the same way with the rest. Contracts sit in a folder on Drive. Leave is tracked in a spreadsheet nobody really keeps up anymore. Candidates for an open role pour into a cluttered inbox.
Non-profits work with limited means. Every euro counts, and paying for an HR system quickly feels like a luxury there is no room for.
And yet the team grows. People join, sometimes a freelancer you still want to keep track of somewhere, maybe an intern. Someone goes on parental leave. A new project manager has to be found. And suddenly keeping track of who does what, who is off when and who is on which contract is no longer a small job.
Most HR software is built for companies with an HR department and a budget to match. That does not fit how non-profits work.
Buying a big HR system doesn't feel like the answer either. Heartsome is built for exactly this kind of team - and for non-profits with ANBI status it's free.
to look after
Everything Heartsome does is a kind of looking after. A few of its senses:
Mark Lieversten
Head of Design
🎂 Birthday tomorrow
to keep them where you can find them
Staff records for employees and freelancers alike, in one place instead of twelve.
Kelly van den Harten
🌴 Vacation · 3 days
Balance
✓ Approved
to let someone rest
They request time off, you approve, the balances update themselves - and sick leave is tracked step by step.
“Honestly? A bit underwater this month.”
🙁 Workload6.8 ↓ 0.6
to notice
Reviews, surveys and pulse checks - a team mood you can read, before someone leaves.
to bring the right person in, kindly
Post the role for your new project manager, follow candidates through one calm pipeline, and treat each applicant like a person rather than a number in a funnel. Hiring, without the chaos and without the cruelty.
And those are just a few. Heartsome does dozens more. See everything →
people, looked after
“What helps most is the overview. With Heartsome, you simply have just one system where you can do everything. That is really great.”
free
At no cost, with no conditions, for non-profits with ANBI status.
Most software hides features behind tiers. See our comparison table →
heartsome
HR software
€0.00
Recruitment software
€0.00
Total
free
really.
Old English heorte, “heart”, and -sum, a quality you carry in you. The word fell out of use around the time HR became a department and people became “resources”.
We brought it back because we built the thing it describes.
We’re a small team, self-funded, with no investors and no board and no one in the building who wants growth at any cost. That is not a humble-brag. It is the reason the price is fair, the reason nothing hides behind a tier, and the reason we can give it away free to non-profits doing work that matters more than our revenue.
people as resources · surprise fees · upgrade-to-unlock · enshittification · growth at all costs
We built Heartsome to be the opposite of this list, and we mean to keep it that way.
usage notes
- Is Heartsome really free for non-profits?
- Yes. Non-profits with an ANBI registration get full access at no cost. No trial that runs out, no hidden fees.
- How does the free access actually work?
- You create a normal account and add your ANBI number in the settings after registering. We check it against the ANBI register and set your account to free. There is nothing to pay up front.
- What if we do not have ANBI status?
- Get in touch. For organisations with a clear mission, we are happy to see whether it fits.
- Do you run HR for us, or is it software we use ourselves?
- Software you use yourself: you and your team log in and keep everything up to date. Want us to do the initial setup? We can, through our concierge service - free, ready within one or two working days.
- What if we have freelancers or volunteers alongside permanent staff?
- You can add freelancers and volunteers too, for example to keep their contact details and agreements. You decide which features are visible to them.
- Can employees log in themselves?
- Yes. Employees have their own space where they can request leave, see their own details and fill in reviews.
- How long does it take to set up Heartsome?
- About five minutes. You create an account, add your people and you are done.
- Is our data safe?
- Heartsome is GDPR-compliant, EU-hosted and encrypts all data. Your data is yours - export or delete it whenever you want.
heartsome
to start looking after the people behind your mission, without it taking over your week.