Buzz4Good! Nonprofits + Marketing

On today’s show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill is buzzing about the power of POWHR (Protect Our Water Heritage and Rights).  Whenever nonprofits have to go up against big for-profit companies it’s often like David vs. Goliath … but with David lacking any stones for his sling. But recently a Southwest Virginia environmental nonprofit used its power to successfully stymy – for now at least – constru...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill is buzzing about one of his favorite days of the year, a day that celebrates more than 130 nonprofit organizations in the New River Valley of Virginia: GiveLocalNRV kicking off at noon on June 24 and ends noon on June 25. It’s a 24-hour fundraising marathon coordinated by our good friends at the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, which...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill talks with the founder of SHIELD Chaplaincy amidst this week's tragic killing of Carroll County Sheriff’s Deputy Logan Utt. Just before Utt's May 29 shooting death, the nonprofit SHIELD Chaplaincy reached out seeking some buzz for its work helping law enforcement officers throughout the Roanoke area handle the trauma and stresses of the...

On today’s show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill is buzzing about Commonwealth Catholic Charities ... specifically its vital role welcoming to our communities some of the most incredible and inspiring people you’ll ever meet, though they're increasingly under attack by our very government: immigrants and refugees.  Michael chats with the nonprofit’s Khalefia Dungee, volunteer extraordinaire Bet...

On today’s show BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about about college … and the unaffordability of it for too many high school graduates who are getting ready to walk the stage this month and receive their diplomas. Thankfully some nonprofits have stepped up to work on this issue, and we speak with two that are headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia: Project Discovery and Friends of the Blue Ridge!

Conflict is natural, but can be painful, so on today show's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill chats with Chelsea Cleary, program manager of The Bridge Institute, a nonprofit resource center that provides mediation and restorative justice for individuals, families, neighborhoods, and businesses in Roanoke Virginia.  In increasingly unsettling times, The Bridge Institute helps people resolve...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill is buzzing about food ...  specifically a Roanoke, Virginia nonprofit dedicated to supporting farmers and fresh, local food for all: the Local Environmental Agriculture Project, aka LEAP .  LEAP is celebrating another milestone – a harvest if you will – on April 14 when it cuts the ribbon to a new $250,000 pavilion at its West End Farmers Market....

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about ... beds! Specifically a nonprofit founded in Idaho that builds and provides free beds for low-income children: Sleep in Heavenly Peace . Luke Mickelson founded Sleep in Heavenly Peace in 2012 in his garage. Today, it's a $25 million operation with more than 400 chapters throughout the U.S. and world, including here in Roanoke,...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about Defending Democracy, founded in Blacksburg, Virginia, in response to what organizers say is the increasing authoritarianism of the second Trump administration. Michael chats with Virginia Tech professor emeritus Jim Bohland, and asks how Virginia Democrats' redistricting effort squares with Defending Democracy's mission. Re...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill is buzzing about SML Gives Inc. SML stands for Smith Mountain Lake and the nonprofit SML Gives Inc. works to fight, poverty, hunger, and homelessness for the impoverished families and individuals living around the otherwise relatively wealthy lakefront property communities. Michael talks with founder, executive director and president Joey Donovan...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about two very different nonprofit educational institutions that are sure to tug at your heart, hopefully your wallets, and that nearby box of tissues to wipe away a tear from your eye. Michael talks with two parents from the tiny Noah-Christian Academy in Salem, Virginia that works with PreK through 2nd grade children who have struggled i...

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill is buzzing about Black History Month.  A couple of weeks ago we premiered our newest episode starring Harrison Museum of African American Culture as it moves into its new home at Melrose Plaza in Roanoke. Here we share the audio of that episode hope you’ll go to our YouTube channel to watch it in its entirety. Or better yet, go visit the museum f...

Merry Christmas! Yes, yes, we know it’s at least Jan. 3 if you’re listening to this, but in celebration of the 12 days of Christmas,  on today’s show BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill shares 12 BUZZ highlights from 2025 in anticipation of even more BUZZ here in 2026. We’ve gone back through the nearly 40 BUZZ episodes and BUZZ Live! shows we produced in 2025 and selected these 12 moments that highligh...

Something wicked this way comes on today's Buzz4Good. On Nov. 6 Radford University hosts The Wicked Festival in which hundreds of students grapple in public presentations with our world’s wickedest problems. BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill chats with Paige Tan, Radford University political science professor and festival director. Michael also share some "sneak listens" to two new epis...

Today BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about On Our Own of the Roanoke Valley , a nonprofit drop-in center that strives to improve the quality of life of people with mental health/substance use issues. We speak with executive director Robin Hubert, who knows all too well the need for such a place as she struggled for years with depression, alcohol abuse, and attempted suicides.  Michael also b...

On today's Buzz4Good, creator and host Michael Hemphill is buzzing live from the historic Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia, to feature the inspiring people who serve, and are served by, the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership. Blacksburg Refugee Partnership is an organization run entirely by community volunteers who believe all humans have the right to a safe, peaceful, happy home. T...

BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about the Athena Leadership Award, given by the Roanoke Regional Chamber that celebrates women who have achieved the highest levels of professional accomplishment while giving back to their communities and actively investing in the success of future leaders. Today Michael chats with the three finalists – all exceptional women who helped build BUZZ – about leade...

On today's Buzz4Good creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about Melrose Plaza , Roanoke, Virginia’s new neighborhood center, which held its grand opening on July 31. The project, which began as a community conversation and research study, is now a transformative community initiative led by the nonprofit Goodwill Industries of the Valleys. Hundreds of people from across the Commonwealth of Virginia...

This week BUZZ was privileged to shine a light on an aspiring nonprofit, Blacks In Technology of Southwest Virginia, as we broadcast live the art, history and promise of its Juneteenth Celebration.

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about two inspirational nonprofits that help people live better and die better.  DePaul Community Resources works to improving the lives of children, families, and individuals with developmental disabilities. Meanwhile, Spirit’s Rest offers comfortable housing and around-the-clock compassionate care and support to hospice patients and thei...

BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill isn't buzzing today in his adopted state of Virginia or his homestate of Alabama, but way out in Montana and Washington to highlight a special nonprofit that is connecting prison inmates with the outside world … through art. How they got connected with Buzz4Good way across the country – and more importantly the heart-breaking, soul-healing work they do – is the s...

We're buzzing about an incredible and inspiring arts project opening June 1 at a new nonprofit arts space in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. It features portraits of 10 of the city’s most iconic citizens, from Dick & Dave of the Q99 Mornin’ Show to Mayor Joe Cobb and former Carilion Clinic CEO Nancy Agee.  Today, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill talks with the founders of the nonprofit arts spac...

Reflecting on our newest shows highlighting nonprofits, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill has to ask: If the Trump administration insists DEI be eradicated, why must it come at the expense of Black history, which is far more accurate than the mythology we've always been taught? If we claim to be pro-life, why are politicians providing fewer and fewer resources and help for that life once it is bo...

Today BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill buzzes about a Blacksburg, Virginia nonprofit that provides hope to walk for thousands of amputees around the world.  Appropriately named Hope to Walk , the nonprofit in May hopes to travel to Ukraine to provide prosthetic legs to some of the estimated 100,000 soldiers and civilians, women and children, who are now amputees because of the war. Listen to our rece...

In today's episode, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill chats with Lisa Lietz about the upcoming SML Gives Day when 36 different nonprofits hope to raise $200,000 to better serve Bedford and Franklin counties in the Smith Mountain Lake area of Virginia. We also share a recent BUZZ Live talk show that features one of these Franklin County nonprofits, Healing Strides of Virginia, along with Apple Rid...