The National Furniture Bank Association, the home furnishings industry’s unified charitable organization, announced the formation of the NFBA Advisory Board.


The NFBA Advisory Board includes general participants and ten subcommittees: Transportation, Media, Retailers, Manufacturers, Suppliers, Representatives, Services, Designers, Conferences, and Technology.

The board was formed in response to requests from executives to compartmentalize specific areas of expertise within the home furnishings industry.
Phil Van Poetsch, executive director of the NFBA, said that the NFBA Advisory Board allows industry leaders to take charge of their market segment on behalf of the NFBA. “We’re experts about how to open and operate furniture banks,” said Van Poetsch, “but we’re not experts about how retailers, transportation companies, or manufacturers can help. The Board of Directors told us to go gather an Advisory Board comprised of leaders across all major market segments. There has never before been such an unprecedented gathering of industry leaders pulling for a common cause. Just look at these names. Brilliant.”

“This is the perfect charitable effort for the home furnishings industry,” said Ed Massood, COO of MGM Transport Corp. and chairman of the NFBA Advisory Board Transportation Subcommittee. “Furniture banks help over a hundred thousand families every year, and they create demand for new furniture purchases. It’s a win-win partnership. Everybody’s getting involved. This is very exciting.”

“The momentum behind the NFBA is really growing now,” said Steve DeHaan, executive vice president of the National Home Furnishings Association (NHFA) and a member of the NFBA Board of Directors. “The industry is realizing that furniture banks benefit us all because consumers wonder what to do with their existing furniture.”

Other home furnishings industry leaders on the NFBA Board of Directors include Ray Allegrezza, editor-in-chief, Furniture/Today; Sharron Bradley, Executive Director, Western Home Furnishings Association; and Mary Frye, President, Home Furnishings International Association . The NFBA Ambassador is Kathy Ireland, the CEO of Kathy Ireland Worldwide.

NFBA Advisory Board members are Mary Ann Levitt, president of Breuners Arizona and 2013 NHFA president; Leslie Carothers, principal, The Kaleidoscope Partnership and writer of “Retail Ideas” blog, Furniture/Today online edition; Powell Slaughter, senior editor of Home Furnishings Business; Doug Kays, home furnishings industry consultant, Julius M. Feinblum Real Estate; John McCloskey, president, Profitability Consulting Group; Richard Tubman, owner, Circle Furniture; and Scott Stephens, chairman and president, Pixel Bridge.

Subcommittees will be chaired by: Transportation Subcommittee: Ed Massood, COO MGM Transport Corp.; Retailer Subcommittee: Hershel Alpert, president, Alpert’s Home Furnishings; Representatives Subcommittee: Kathy Parks, executive director, IHFRA; Supplier Subcommittee: Ralph Mosher, president, Light Check Services Inc.; Manufacturer Subcommittee: Jeff Cook, president and CEO, Magnussen Home Furnishings; Conferences Subcommittee: Brian Casey, president, High Point Market Authority; Designers Subcommittee: Janice Craig, president, J. Craig & Associates Interior Design and past president, Interior Design Society (IDS); Media Subcommittee (co-chairs): Russell Bienenstock, editor, Furniture World, with co-chair Cheminne Taylor-Smith, editor in chief, InFurniture Magazine; Technology Subcommittee: David Chisholm, COO, TrueHome.

The NFBA will be accepting donations of furniture from exhibitors at High Point Market. MGM Transport Corp. will collect furniture directly from exhibitors’ showrooms. While all donations are greatly appreciated, the organization is particularly in need of dining room tables, chairs, sofas or sofa beds, lamps, comforters and other bedding materials. All donations are fully tax deductible.

Kimberley Wray, vice president of marketing and communications for the High Point Market Authority, said the NFBA provides a way for exhibitors to save money while doing something good for people in need. “For many of our exhibitors, it just doesn’t make financial sense to ship display merchandise back to their warehouses,” Wray said. “Donating furniture directly to the NFBA is a win-win situation for everybody involved.”

To donate furniture from your showroom in High Point or to become a financial sponsor of the NFBA, please contact Don Lawrence, NFBA vice president of communications, at dlawrence@help1up.org or (800) 576-0774.