The American Heart Association’s mission is to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We’re devoted to removing barriers to health and achieving equitable health and well-being for all people. We’re the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Founded in 1924, our organization is powered by over 40 million volunteers and supporters. We fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide critical tools and information to save and improve lives. We provide science-based treatment guidelines to help health care professionals ensure quality care. We’ve invested more than $4.5 billion in research, making us the largest private not-for-profit funder of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research.

Our work toward our mission focuses sharply on equitable health for all people. We pursue our mission through an organization-wide Impact Goal, which we update routinely to ensure our work is delivered in the most relevant, impactful way. Our current Impact Goal is: Every person deserves the opportunity for a full, healthy life. As champions for health equity, by 2024, the American Heart Association will advance cardiovascular health for all, including identifying and removing barriers to health care access and quality.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Funding research into heart disease and stroke, including a $100 million investment in new research programs and grants focused on science-based solutions to health inequities and structural racism.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Two: Improving equitable health of communities nationwide by working to change policies and systems and funding organizations that can drive change from within their own communities.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Improving access to and the quality of health care across the nation, including increased focus on blood pressure control, under-resourced populations and those in rural communities.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Describe an investment in leadership

The American Heart Association has made several investments to grow our current and future leaders. Our current leaders participated in McKinsey & Company’s Black, Latinx and Asian Leadership Academies. And to support employees’ continual growth and to increase the number of well-rounded leaders in our talent pipeline, we provide all employees – at no cost – opportunities to engage in leadership development and mentorship programs. We offer over 100,000 resources to staff from recognized learning institutions including Harvard, MIT, CCL, Gap International and Allstate Foundation Nonprofit Leadership Center. We provide targeted leadership development for new and tenured hiring managers and fundraisers. We offer all employees development in the areas of allyship, anti-racism, cultural competency, unconscious bias and equity. Developing diverse employees is a key to our successful succession planning and retention.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

As a catalyst to achieving maximum impact in equitable health and well-being, we mobilize nationwide and internationally. We work with consumers, patients, volunteers, donors, hospitals, health care teams, scientists, churches, schools, employers and policymakers. Here are a few examples: As a science-based organization, we work with researchers, institutions and government entities to fund lifesaving research. We help 2,500 hospitals adhere to treatment guidelines. We work with health centers to bring blood pressure under control in communities where the problem is acute. We fund organizations and individuals who are working to improve health equity in their communities. We work with lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels to advance healthy public policy. We work with schools, media and other health-focused organizations to spread awareness. We train health professionals and individuals in CPR. And we work with corporate leaders to help build healthier workplaces.

We adapted to the continually changing world in the COVID-19 pandemic, finding new ways to reach patients, work in communities, advance scientific research, collaborate with hospitals, hold scientific meetings, raise funds and more. We restructured our operation to ensure even more efficiencies, cost-savings and adaptability. We adjusted our organization-wide goal to reflect urgent health needs, placing a stronger emphasis on equitable health for all. Health equity, long a major aspect of our work, became much more urgent. The pandemic’s disproportionate impact on the health and finances of Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and Asian people further exacerbated existing health disparities. We accompanied our goal with 10 bold actions to address barriers to health caused by social factors and structural racism. These actions include work in scientific research, community programs and a nationwide initiative to improve blood pressure control and heart health among people of color. Because heart disease patients and people with related conditions are susceptible to worse outcomes from the coronavirus, our organization’s trusted, science-based health information is even more important. And so we shifted to a digital-first approach to better engage people with this valuable information. As a leading science authority, we made critical adjustments with far-reaching impact. For example, we developed new patient registries to help researchers figure out exactly how COVID-19 affects heart disease patients, stroke survivors and young athletes’ hearts. The pandemic amplified the need of our work advocating for public health policies at national, state and local levels. We’ve focused on helping families, communities and officials navigate the pandemic and promote good health. Our varied work within communities took on new importance. For example, we’ve invested $4.5 million into 33 community-based groups supporting people who were struggling during the pandemic.