NICENetwork Connects People Who Change Lives Across America

Meet Fran Heitzman
Bridging, Inc. Founder

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Heitzman was a part-time custodian at a church in Minnesota when a woman dropped by to donate a baby crib. Unsure with what to do with it, he contacted a local social service agency.  He was surprised to find that they were ecstatic to receive it.  This seemingly random event eventually led Fran to create Bridging, Inc., one of the largest home furnishing-donation programs in America.

Meet Leanne McGrath
Sharing Connections Founder

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Leanne was a housewife in a middle class Chicago suburb when, after a personal crisis, her comfortable “suburban view” of the world changed.  She started tearing up when she would watch stories on the news about poor children in Chicago.  Initially she thought she had a psychological problem, but came to learn that she had a calling – to help children.  She used her passion for helping poor children, families in transition, and her networking skills to invent a home furnishings supply chain that connects businesses with social service agencies throughout the Chicago area. 
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Fran Heitzman and Leeann McGrath founded furniture bank initiatives in two separate cities. While both were successful, they had never met. They made a connection thanks to being featured in the book The Power of One. Both highly successful green initiatives, that help families through a life transition, were aided in their growth by each group deciding to share some of their board members with the other.  Today both initiatives are award-winning nonprofits and are  pursuing replication into more cities, in part, thanks to the NICE connection.

     
 Debra Berg experimented with connecting civic entrepreneurs in 2006 by hosting a radio show on VoiceAmerica.com. On one show Herbert Lusk, former NFL running-back and founder of People for People (Philadelphia, PA), connected with Chris Mangum, founder of Jobs for Life (active in 120 cities)on one of Debra's shows. Even though Rev. Lusk’s initiative boasted twenty years’ success in Philly, he was ready to replicate it to more locatins. Herb was open to hearing how Chris was replicating JFL.  After hearing Chris tell his story, he told Debra that he’s “always a student willing to learn” and requested Chris’s contact information in order to learn from his experiences.
The National Institute for Civic Enteprise, a nonprofit project through Homes That Change Lives in Boston, was formed by Debra in 2007 to expand the possibilities for connecting effective and passionate human service nonprofit leaders across the nation. The NICENetwork is a vision Debra has for connecting these leaders, on and offline, so they can share what's working and what's needed to help those they serve. The effort also promotes replication of initiatives at all levels.