[2] Heimans, as a child activist in his native Australia, he ran media campaigns and lobbied leaders on issues like children's rights and nuclear non-proliferation.

[3][4] In 2004, Heimans dropped out of Oxford[citation needed] to co-found a campaign group in the U.S. presidential elections that used crowd-funding to help a group of women whose loved ones were in Iraq hire a private jet to follow Vice-President Dick Cheney on his campaign stops, in what became known as the "Chasing Cheney" tour.

[6][7] In 2007, Heimans was a co-founder of Avaaz.org, a global civic organization that operates in 15 languages and claims over forty million members in 194 countries.

New Power has been praised by writers and public figures, including Richard Branson, David Brooks, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, Susan Cain, Jane Goodall, Alicia Garza, Russell Brand, Reid Hoffman, Ai-jen Poo, Adam Grant, Craig Newmark, Paul Polman, Howard Dean, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and more.

In 2011, Heimans received the Ford Foundation's 75th Anniversary Visionary Award for his work building "powerful, tech-savvy movements that can transform culture and influence policy".