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American Red Cross

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Great brand, great people, poor leadership - Director American Red Cross Employee Review

3.0
May 8, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Your career is up to you. If you are brave and proactive, there are many opportunities for advancement. If you sit back and wait, or if you fail to seize opportunity, you'll sit in your chair for ever. The organization doesn't grow, so you have to move where opportunity is...many people have been here 10+ years so seats at each level usually stay filled. And, of course, it's the Red Cross. One of the best brands and one of the noblest of missions.

Cons

Crappy senior leadership. The Red Cross subscribes to the idea that the best managers come from private sector. Senior leadership is therefore comprised of retirement-age, ex-executives who don't get along with each other (almost all white males) and each want to build their own fiefdom. Each is convinced their private-sector experience uniquely provides them with the only strategy for "saving the Red Cross"...it's interesting that no executive comes to the Red Cross from the private-sector without professing the need to "save the Red Cross." The result is the rest of the organization competes for resources, and frequently serve as soldiers in years-simmering feuds between this exec and that one. If you consistently excel, you can make it to Sr./Exec Director, if you are lucky but probably not above that. It's a good place to start or finish your career; not the best for mid career.

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American Red Cross Response
12y
Thank you for your review and praise for our mission. Although we disagree with your assertions about the dynamics of our senior leadership team, we do believe that the success of the Red Cross depends upon interdepartmental collaboration from the top down, and that no one person or entity holds all of the solutions to solve our organization’s challenges: it must be a team effort. We appreciate your feedback.

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5.0
Apr 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

My experience working with the Red Cross has been great. The work is fulfilling and the people are passionate. Benefits are good - Kaiser is $6 a month!

Cons

There is work life balance, but there is an expectation to work nights and weekends.

4.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible remote hours, supportive team that treats volunteers as contributors rather than interns, and a low-pressure environment

Cons

Tooling is limited compared to corporate environments — primarily Excel-driven, so you won't get exposure to modern BI stacks (Power BI, Tableau, Snowflake) unless you bring them in yourself. Data sources are inconsistent (legacy .xls files, manual exports requiring conversion), so expect clean-up work.

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