Herein, we introduce a new class of bench-stable N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) nickel-precatalysts for homogeneous nickel-catalysis. The nickel(II) complexes are readily activated to Ni0 in situ under mild conditions, via a proposed Heck-type mechanism. The precatalysts are shown to facilitate carbonyl-ene, hydroalkenylation, and amination reactions