July 23, 2022 - It's a Jungle Out There: Nonprofits Enhancing Entrepreneurial & Environmental Ecosystems

On today's show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill talks to the leaders of VERGE, the nonprofit that houses the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council and RAMP. These organizations help technology entrepreneurs accelerate their startups and grow their businesses. Interestingly, in a tech space traditionally dominated by men, VERGE's leadership is all women.Co-host Carrie Cousins offers marketing tips for membership-based nonprofits like the technology council.We also revisit Mill Mountain Zoo, the star of Episode 3 of BUZZ back in August 2020. At the time MMZ was experiencing an identity crisis because its leaders felt like the word "zoo" had a negative stereotype that didn’t reflect its current mission of wildlife conservation. Michael catches up with executive director Niki Voudren to learn the latest on MMZ, which this summer celebrates its 70th birthday.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.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FOLLOW US:F A C E B O O K ➜ http://facebook.com/buzz4good​​I N S T A G R A M ➜ http://instagram.com/buzz4good​​L I N K E D I N ➜ https://www.linkedin.com/company/buzz...T W I T T E R ➜ http://twitter.com/buzz4good​​W E B S I T E ➜ http://buzz4good.com​​- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The United States has more than 1.5 million nonprofits — from homeless shelters, food banks and rescue squads to children’s choirs, science museums and animal refuges — that employ one out of every 10 Americans. Like any company, nonprofits have salaries and bills to pay, a budget to balance. They require money. And if enough people don’t know about them, don’t believe in them, don’t support them — in short, if they lack BUZZ — they suffer and die.