American Heart Association Reviews

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time for less than a year

Pros – You do get to meet people that care about heart disease.

Cons – Bad working environment and Bad Management
Workplace bullying is unbelievable. Bullying is an acceptable practice at this organization.
There are so many employees that are overworked and under appreciated.
The organization is very top heavy....You have VP's of VP's and they are never to be seen unless the EVP comes in.

Advice to Senior Management – I echo the other reviews about bullying and office politics. It doesn't seem to matter.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I have met a few people that are kind, honest and genuine in their need to help the cause.

Cons – If you are aggressive and willing to cut a few throats and step all over people. "Welcome" American Heart is the place for you. The really aggressive fundraisers will use you and toss you to the side when they are done. They are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed and they do. If you care about how you treat people you are not going to make it...simple as that. Pushing your work off onto your administrative assistant is the norm and the culture it's accepted and no one cares.

Advice to Senior Management – Look at what your administrative people are doing pay them for the hours worked and time away from home. You are paying the wrong people the real fundraisers are being paid too little and treated like second class citizens. Pay attention to how the even is really being handled because the hourly employees are being dumped on.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time for more than a year

Pros – There are some individuals that work for AHA that truly care about the mission.

Cons – The individuals that that truly care about the mission are few and far between. Most if not all of the managers are aggressive and petty. Managers are inexperienced and their management style would give a good trainer examples of "what not to do, what you should never say, how you should never act or respond". After speaking to other employees the culture has always been this way and it appears as if the organizations sees no reason to change. If you stand up for yourself or go against your manager you will pay the ultimate price and lose your job. I have seen so many good employees be pushed out and fired.

Hours are endless and if you log your hours you will be reprimanded. They expect you to take time off to avoid paying you overtime when your weekends spent at events and not with your family. This job and the culture will emotionally break you down. I can say most of my co-workers are unhappy and are looking for employment.

Advice to Senior Management – Open your eyes and your ears, the same complaints about the same managers cannot be wrong. Turnover is costly how can keeping these individuals regardless of the fundraising amount be profitable!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Heart Association full-time for less than a year

Pros – Pretty decent pay for a nonprofit
Great "brand name" recognition

Cons – A lot of lip service is paid to the idea of work-life balance. In fact, it was mentioned specifically several times in my interviews, but it was a different story once hired on. Expect to be basically on-call 24/7. Phone calls, emails, texts at all hours, and if you don't respond within seconds or with the perfect reply, you will pay. They dump so much work on you that it could not be done in a 90-hour work week, much less a supposed 37.5 hour week.

NO practical training. Tons of time-wasting, pointless online classes. Tons of unnecessary conference calls. Oh, and don't expect any help from the people in your office. They had to learn the hard way themselves and are certainly not willing to part with their hard-earned knowledge.

Staff at my local office are extremely stuck-up and cliquish. Like working with a bunch of 8th grade girls.

Consider yourself lucky if you work less than 60 hours a week. If they say occasional travel, that means most days of the week, from before dawn until way past dark. Step out of line and YOU WILL PAY. This is a SALES JOB and a sales job only, so don't get any starry-eyed ideas that you're changing the world. Mission counts for nothing in this organization.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop playing favorites. Actually take the time to train employees on real job functions, not theories and arcane policies. You can't demand instant perfection when YOU didn't train and heaped on an unreasonable amount of work. Try to conceal your greed and tremendous egos, as it is off-putting and very evident to donors. Accept the fact that for some people "work life balance" is a real thing and a true priority; yes, even the same people who don't mind working extra hours for a special project-within reason! Squelch the snobbery. Put an end to the constant verbal and psychological abuse. Pretend you actually care about people with heart disease as more than just a way to boost your fundraising event totals.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time for more than a year

Pros – The Mission is great the cause can be even greater

Cons – It's not about the mission it's about the money.
"Work-Life-Balance" is only a phrase...working 7 days a week with no end in sight.
The politics and pettiness can leave you emotionally exhausted.
Since it is only about the money bad behavior is accepted and condoned depending on your title and ability to raise money.

Advice to Senior Management – Get new managers that have a "Heart". Don't allow people to be belittled by their managers. Expect more from your managers make them be leaders. If a leader doesn't have followers they are just wandering around.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time for less than a year

Pros – Thinking that working for a good cause can motivate you at first

Cons – Management is abusive and petty.
It's all about the money who you know and what you can do.
The environment is unhealthy.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop abusing your employees. This is not a healthy working environment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time

Pros – Willing to give a chance to entry level employees

Cons – Heavy turnover, work load is too large

Current Employee – been working at American Heart Association full-time for more than a year

Pros – The benefits are great and the mission is very important. Because it's such a large organization, there are many resources to pull from.

Cons – It's basically a sales job. The mission is secondary to the revenue. The top managers care more about getting their bonuses than saving lives. They work their teams ragged and don't care about the employees at all. Those who succeed in the organization are mindless and heartless robots. This is the worst place I have ever worked and wish I would have read the other reviews on this site before accepting the job!

Advice to Senior Management – Being nice goes a long way to inspiring employees to succeed. You need to stop taking credit for their successes if you're not going to take credit for their failures. Hire more staff if you want to meet your financial goals and get your bonus!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at American Heart Association full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Hours of 37.5 and getting paid for 40, if you can manage to work less than 50 a week and not be criticized constantly. The office does close for 2 weeks in the winter though you are expected to work. This is across all departments so I guess it's not really a pro per say.

Cons – Management is terrible. No one cares about you as a person and you are simply a number. I have seen them fire hard working management who have been here 10 plus years simply because they didn't play in the sandbox and treat their employees like total dog meat.

Advice to Senior Management – Take value in your employees and volunteers before someone that matters gets tired of it.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Heart Association full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Best volunteers to work with.

Cons – Management is a group of sorority women who are deeply insecure and destroy talented individuals by cutting them down to their level.

Advice to Senior Management – Get rid of the Executive Directors and VP's who only foster this toxic environment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company