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Michael Hemphill

#GivingTuesday tips & Tools from Buzz4Good! 1024 575 Michael Hemphill

#GivingTuesday tips & Tools from Buzz4Good!

On today’s Buzz4Good! Nonprofits+Marketing, AAF Roanoke president Carrie Cousins and BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill share strategies to help nonprofits make the most of #GivingTuesday. And Carrie offers a fantastic #GivingTuesday resource in her latest “No Budget Marketing Minute.”

Are you a nonprofit with an event that we could help promote? Or a marketing problem we could help fix? Contact us and we’ll share on an upcoming episode.

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Buzz4Good! is hosted by BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill and American Advertising Federation of Roanoke president Carrie Cousins, who has appeared on two episodes of the TV show BUZZ helping nonprofits with their digital marketing needs.

Habitat for Humanity of the New River Valley wraps up 2021 for BUZZ 900 518 Michael Hemphill

Habitat for Humanity of the New River Valley wraps up 2021 for BUZZ

As originally broadcast on Nov. 3, 2021, on Blue Ridge PBS …

Home is where the heart is, but it’s where your money is too. And for most of us money determines not only the type of home we can afford but its condition once we move in. 

For more than 35 years, Habitat for Humanity of the New River Valley has been dedicated to building quality affordable housing for low-income families.

Now the nonprofit embarks on a visionary new mission: creating task forces in individual communities that can serve as first responders for people in need of critical home repair. Helping Habitat launch this initiative are our friends at 5Points Creative, plus a familiar face to BUZZ, Eastmont Community Foundation, which we featured in December 2020.

Together, they’re working to build a program that may one day become a model for our entire country … ensuring that the real value of our homes isn’t measured in dollars, but in heart. 

Announcing our new Radio show: Buzz4Good! 600 337 Michael Hemphill

Announcing our new Radio show: Buzz4Good!

We are thrilled to announce our next big thing to feature the great work that nonprofit organizations do in our communities!

Thanks to our friends at Wheeler Media and WFIR News Talk Radio, on October 2 at 4:00 p.m. we launch our new weekly radio show: Buzz4Good!

On Buzz4Good! we talk all things nonprofit … the people they serve and the good they do. And we talk to creative marketing professionals who provide tips and tools to help nonprofits attract more donors, volunteers and clients to their cause.

Buzz4Good! is hosted by BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill and American Advertising Federation of Roanoke president Carrie Cousins, who has appeared on two episodes of the TV show BUZZ helping nonprofits with their digital marketing needs.

Speaking of TV shows, a video version of each episode of Buzz4Good! will be simulcast on Blue Ridge PBS’ streaming channels. The episodes will also be available on demand on our YouTube channel and on Apple Podcast.

In our debut show of Buzz4Good! …

  • We preview upcoming fundraising events hosted by nonprofits, like Center in the Square’s Blue Ridge Nightmares and Children’s Assistive Technology Service’s Hallowheels.
  • Michael talks to Roanoke Arts & Cultural Coordinator Douglas Jackson about the region’s arts organizations.
  • Carrie reflects on the website woes of Southwest Virginia Ballet in Episode 1 of BUZZ and shares tips to make your nonprofit’s website more effective and engaging.
  • United Way of the Roanoke Valley executive director Abby Hamilton introduces us to “The Tale of Two Cities” and the unjust disparities that exist for people living in different ZIP codes not even five miles apart.
  • Carrie offers her “No Budget Marketing Tip of the Week.”
  • And more!

Are you a nonprofit with an event that we could help promote? Or a marketing problem we could help fix? Email us and we’ll share on an upcoming episode.

Are you a business that would like to be featured on our show and enjoy the “buzz” you’d get for supporting the life-enhancing work that nonprofits do for our communities? Check out our sponsorship guide to see how you can get more buzz by supporting BUZZ.

See Sponsorship Guide

Tune in to WFIR this Saturday, October 2, at 4:00 p.m. to hear our first episode of Buzz4Good!

BUZZ Season 2 Premiers with C.A.T.S. 600 375 Michael Hemphill

BUZZ Season 2 Premiers with C.A.T.S.

“I don’t want to say insurance doesn’t care, they just don’t understand. If it doesn’t affect you, you don’t understand.”

More than 1,000 Virginia families each year struggle to afford costly wheelchairs, walkers, standers and strollers for their special needs children.

Thankfully, there’s Children’s Assistive Technology Service, aka C.A.T.S., a nonprofit providing children across the state with refurbished pediatric rehabilitation equipment … all at no cost.

Helping fund C.A.T.S.’ mission is an annual Halloween event, Hallowheels. Our good friends at 5Points Creative – with generous help by EZRampz Mobility Solutions, WDBJ7 and WWBT – are back with a fantastic marketing campaign to get more people to know about, and financially support, this life-changing event.

Kicking off Season 2 of BUZZ, our episode on C.A.T.S. aired Sept. 22 on Blue Ridge PBS.

We thank ABLENow for the generous sponsorship support of this episode. ABLENow helps individuals with disabilities save money to pay for qualified expenses, without being taxed on the earnings — and in most cases, without losing eligibility for certain means-tested benefit programs.

Christiansburg Institute wraps 1st season of BUZZ 900 538 Michael Hemphill

Christiansburg Institute wraps 1st season of BUZZ

BUZZ concluded its first season in August 2021 with a special two-part episode featuring the Christiansburg Institute. Watch both parts now on our YouTube channel!

For 100 years, the Christiansburg Institute stood as one of the finest schools for Black Americans in Virginia. Founded in 1866 just a year after the Civil War put an end to slavery, Christiansburg Institute became a testament to African-American self-preservation, educating thousands of students on its 185-acre campus. Education giants such as Booker T. Washington served as superintendent.

But in 1966 school integration finally took hold in Virginia … and Christiansburg Institute’s legacy was quite literally whitewashed away. Its academic buildings were shuttered. Its students scattered to previously whites-only schools. Its land subdivided and sold off. Today all that’s left is one abandoned building on four acres.

But there’s a group of passionate people dedicated to preserving its history … and creating a catalyst for community conversations, racial justice and change. Helping them is Spectrum Media Solutions, which designed and donated a new website so they can share their story to a national audience.

BUZZ is a program of AAF Roanoke and is sponsored in part by the Virginia Film Office.