American Heart Association, Inc.
The American Heart Association is a U.S. nonprofit organization focused on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health through research, education, advocacy, emergency-care training, and public engagement.
Last updated October 6, 2026
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Overview
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing illness and death from cardiovascular disease and stroke. Established in 1924 by six cardiologists, it developed from a professional association concerned with heart disease into one of the country’s largest voluntary health organizations. Its work combines scientific research, clinical guidance, public education, professional training, community programs, fundraising, and public-policy advocacy. AHA’s research role is central to its identity. The organization supports biomedical and population-health research and disseminates evidence intended to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term management of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions. It also publishes scientific and clinical information, convenes medical professionals, and promotes standards for appropriate cardiac and stroke care. The American Stroke Association operates as an AHA division, concentrating the organization’s stroke-related education, advocacy, and research activities. For the public, AHA provides information on heart-healthy nutrition, physical activity, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, weight management, warning signs, and emergency response. Its educational ecosystem includes consumer resources, workplace and community initiatives, materials for patients and caregivers, and guidance designed to help people recognize and respond to cardiac arrest and stroke. Through professional education and certification programs, it also supports training in CPR, basic and advanced cardiovascular life support, pediatric life support, and automated external defibrillator use. The organization is funded through contributions, grants, fundraising events, program fees, educational-material sales, investment income, royalties, and other sources. Its public-facing fundraising and cause-marketing campaigns connect individual motivations for healthier living with donations and corporate partnerships. AHA maintains a nationwide network of local offices, volunteers, supporters, healthcare professionals, researchers, and advocacy partners. Although headquartered in Dallas after relocating from New York in 1975, it works through local and national programs across the United States and participates in international scientific and health collaborations. AHA is not a conventional commercial brand or software company. The supplied industry classification of data and analytics software does not fit the organization’s documented identity; its principal category is nonprofit cardiovascular-health and medical-research services. The brand’s contemporary positioning links scientific authority with practical, emotionally resonant action: helping people live longer, healthier lives while mobilizing donors, volunteers, clinicians, employers, retailers, and policymakers around heart and brain health.
History
The American Heart Association was founded in 1924 by six cardiologists who sought to build a stronger institutional response to heart disease. At the time, cardiovascular disease was increasingly recognized as a major public-health problem, but scientific understanding, clinical practice, and public awareness were still developing. AHA initially functioned primarily as a professional and scientific organization. Over subsequent decades it expanded into research funding, publication, medical education, public information, fundraising, and advocacy. The organization’s growth reflected the changing nature of cardiovascular medicine. As research clarified the roles of blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco, diet, physical activity, diabetes, and other risk factors, AHA became a conduit between medical evidence and everyday health behavior. It supported investigators, circulated clinical knowledge, promoted prevention, and encouraged improvements in emergency and hospital care. Its publications and professional programs helped establish a recognizable evidence-based voice in heart health. AHA moved its national headquarters from New York to Dallas in 1975, a change intended to provide a more central base for its nationwide operations. It continued to develop a network of local offices, chapters, volunteers, donors, researchers, and healthcare partners. The organization’s activities broadened beyond coronary disease to include stroke, congenital heart conditions, hypertension, resuscitation science, women’s cardiovascular health, health equity, and the social and environmental conditions that shape health outcomes. In 1997, the American Stroke Association was created as an AHA division to bring together the association’s stroke-related work. This structure strengthened public recognition of stroke as a major vascular emergency and enabled focused education, professional resources, advocacy, and research support. AHA also built a substantial emergency-care training operation, offering programs associated with CPR, basic and advanced cardiovascular life support, pediatric life support, and AED use. The modern association operates as a large voluntary health nonprofit rather than as a commercial product company. It earns support from individual and institutional contributions, grants, fundraising events, program fees, educational materials, investments, royalties, and partnerships. Its public campaigns have increasingly connected scientific credibility with personal stories and participation. The 2014 Dalton Agency campaign represented a significant attempt to make the brand more emotionally immediate, while the 2017 appointment of CP+B Boulder and Edelman as its first global agency partners reflected an effort to coordinate and modernize communications. Fundraising platforms such as Life Is Why and Life Is Why We Give use retail, digital, social, and community participation to convert personal reasons for living healthier into support for research and programs. By its centennial period, AHA presented its mission in broader terms encompassing both heart and brain health and a goal of longer, healthier lives for everyone. Its continuing role is to fund research, translate evidence into guidance, train professionals and the public, advocate for healthier policies, and provide accessible resources for prevention and emergency response.
- 2024
Centennial-year Life Is Why campaign
[2]Retail and brand partners supported heart and brain health fundraising during American Heart Month and AHA’s centennial year.
- 2017
First global agency-of-record appointments
[6]AHA selected CP+B Boulder for advertising and Edelman for public relations after a nationwide review.
- 2015
Life Is Why We Give launches
[3]A national giving platform used corporate partnerships, retail point-of-sale requests, digital participation, and media to support AHA fundraising.
- 2014
First major rebranding in decades
[1]AHA launched a multimedia campaign intended to make the organization’s identity more personal and emotionally engaging.
- 1997
American Stroke Association created
[4]AHA formed the American Stroke Association as a division to consolidate stroke-related activities.
- 1975
National headquarters moves to Dallas
[4]AHA relocated its national headquarters from New York to Dallas to support a more centrally located national operation.
- 1924
American Heart Association founded
[4]Six cardiologists established the organization in the United States to address heart disease through professional collaboration and public-health work.
Products and positioning
A science-led, community-supported nonprofit health organization that translates cardiovascular and stroke research into clinical standards, public education, emergency-care skills, advocacy, and healthier everyday behavior.
Professional and public training
CPR and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Training
AHA provides structured education and certification associated with CPR, basic life support, advanced cardiovascular life support, pediatric advanced life support, and AED use. These programs are designed for healthcare professionals, first responders, workplaces, educators, and members of the public, with an emphasis on recognizing emergencies and delivering timely care.
Consumer health certification
Heart-Check Certification Program
The Heart-Check mark helps consumers identify products that meet defined AHA nutrition criteria. It extends the association’s educational role into grocery and retail settings by connecting a recognizable certification symbol with healthier purchasing decisions.
Fundraising and cause-marketing platform
Life Is Why™
Life Is Why connects people’s personal reasons for pursuing healthier, longer lives with donations supporting AHA’s heart and brain health mission. Retailers, brands, and consumers can participate through point-of-sale donations, qualifying purchases, and related awareness activity.
Stroke-health division · 1997
American Stroke Association
The American Stroke Association is an AHA division focused on stroke prevention, recognition, treatment, recovery, research, professional education, and public advocacy. It gives stroke-related work a distinct identity within the broader cardiovascular-health organization.
Marketing campaigns
- 2024Life Is Why™ during American Heart Month
United States
AHA and national retailers invited shoppers to support cardiovascular and brain-health work through checkout donations or purchases that triggered a contribution. The campaign was tied to American Heart Month and AHA’s centennial year.
Outcome. The initiative broadened consumer participation in AHA’s fundraising mission through retail and brand partnerships.
- 2015Life Is Why We Give
United States
Matchfire helped AHA turn its corporate-partner network into a nationwide giving platform. The effort used retail register appeals, an interactive digital hub, online giving, traditional and social media, and public-relations activity.
Outcome. The campaign supported AHA’s long-term fundraising ambitions and encouraged coordinated participation by retailers, companies, and consumers.
- 2014American Heart Association Gets Emotional
United States
Developed with the Dalton Agency, this multimedia rebranding campaign used television, print, digital, social, and outdoor placements to present AHA through more personal and emotionally resonant stories rather than relying only on factual health education.
Outcome. The campaign was intended to strengthen the public image of AHA and build a closer connection with volunteers, partners, and consumers.
Brand decisions
2017
Appoint first global advertising and public-relations agencies of recordStrategyBackground
AHA had previously worked with multiple agencies and consultants across education, awareness, and fundraising programs. It conducted a nationwide review to create a more coordinated global communications approach.
Action taken
The association appointed CP+B Boulder as global advertising agency of record and Edelman as global public-relations agency of record.
Aftermath
The appointments were intended to modernize the nonprofit brand and make it more relevant to new generations of volunteers, donors, and health-conscious consumers.
Recent events
Texas Health Fort Worth earns Commitment to Quality award[7]
Reported:
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth earned the American Heart Association’s Commitment to Quality award for the second consecutive year, recognizing its achievement of high marks in three or more 2026 Get With The Guidelines clinical areas.
- Unconfirmed
Tift Regional Medical Center earns three quality awards[8]
Reported:
Tift Regional Medical Center earned three American Heart Association awards recognizing its heart failure, stroke and diabetes care.
- Unconfirmed
Allegheny General Hospital receives AHA hypertension center certification[9]
Reported:
Allegheny General Hospital was awarded the American Heart Association’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center Certification.
Medical Center EMS receives Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Plus Award[10]
Reported:
Bowling Green’s Medical Center EMS received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Plus Award for implementing quality improvement measures for the treatment of patients who experience severe heart attacks.
Great River Medical Center receives AHA Gold Plus award[11]
Reported:
Great River Medical Center received the American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline Gold Plus Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing specified quality-improvement measures for treating patients with severe heart attacks.
CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital–Atlanta receives stroke-care award[12]
Reported:
CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital–Atlanta received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award.
AMR Mississippi Gulf Coast receives Mission Lifeline Gold Award[13]
Reported:
American Medical Response Mississippi Gulf Coast received the American Heart Association’s Mission Lifeline Gold Award for the quality treatment of patients experiencing massive heart attacks.
- Unconfirmed
Shannon Medical Center receives four cardiac and stroke care awards[14]
Reported:
Shannon Medical Center received four American Heart Association awards recognizing its cardiac and stroke care, including Mission: Lifeline and Get with the Guidelines quality achievement awards.
San Ramon Regional Medical Center receives stroke-care award[15]
Reported:
San Ramon Regional Medical Center received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award for its commitment to guideline-based stroke care.
- Unconfirmed
American Heart Association and The Sweet Potato Patch collaborate on senior meals[16]
Reported:
The Metro St. Louis chapter of the American Heart Association is collaborating with The Sweet Potato Patch to provide 100 ready-to-eat meals to seniors in East St. Louis during June and July. The American Heart Association will fund the program's expansion and provide volunteers.
Showing the 10 most recent.
Sources22 sources
- 1American Heart Association Gets Emotionaladweek.com
- 2National retailers support heart and stroke health through annual Life Is Why campaignnewsroom.heart.org
- 3Life Is Why We Give case studymatchfire.com
- 4American Heart Association executive profilepeople.equilar.com
- 5American Heart Association audited financial statements, 2023–2024heart.org
- 6First global agency-of-record appointmentsadweek.com
- 7Texas Health Fort Worth 获得质量承诺奖fortworthbusiness.com
- 8Tift Regional Medical Center 获得三项质量奖tiftongazette.com
- 9阿利根尼总医院获得美国心脏协会高血压中心认证timesonline.com
- 10Medical Center EMS 获得 Mission: Lifeline EMS Gold Plus 奖bgdailynews.com
- 11Great River Medical Center 获得美国心脏协会 Gold Plus 奖kbur.com
- 12CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital–Atlanta 获得卒中护理奖kygl.com
- 13AMR 密西西比湾岸分部获得 Mission Lifeline 金奖wxxv25.com
- 14Shannon Medical Center 获得四项心脏及卒中护理奖项sanangelolive.com
- 15圣拉蒙地区医疗中心获卒中护理奖patch.com
- 16美国心脏协会与The Sweet Potato Patch合作为老年人提供餐食stlamerican.com
- 17AEW与亚特兰大美国心脏协会分会合作推出捐款赠票活动f4wonline.com
- 18Streamlabs推出慈善筹款工具theverge.com
- 19BBVA USA获金级健康成就奖prnewswire.com
- 20美国心脏协会 CEO 圆桌会议启动“Sharing”宣传活动prnewswire.com
- 21BBVA USA earns its fourth consecutive Gold Status Health Achievement Award from the American Heart Associationprnewswire.com
- 22Shannon Medical Center receives four awards from American Heart Associationgosanangelo.com
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