Uma Kleppinger, Author at Üma Kleppinger

Nonprofits don’t have a communications & fundraising problem. They have a marketing problem.

Let’s start with the word nobody in the nonprofit sector wants to say out loud: Marketing. I know. It feels wrong. Marketing is what corporations do to sell you things you don’t need and can’t afford. Marketing is manipulation, it’s spin, it’s the dark arts of capitalism dressed up in brand guidelines. Nonprofits are mission-driven,…

Editorial Feature: Robin Arzon x Specialized

I was hired to launch Specialized’s women’s digital magazine, Your Ride, Your Rules. As Editor-in-Chief, I wrote the feature articles, developed the editorial calendar, created workflows, and directed photographers and other editorial contributors. “Most likely to be the Oprah of fitness.” It’s what you’d expect to see scribbled in the margins of Robin Arzon’s high…

Profile Interview: Hannah Barnes

I was hired to launch Specialized’s women’s digital magazine, Your Ride, Your Rules. As Editor-in-Chief, I wrote the feature articles, developed the editorial calendar, created workflows, and directed photographers and other editorial contributors. It’s been said that to succeed in bike racing, one must reach deep into one’s “suitcase of suffering” to pull out the…

Personal Equity Statement

My commitment to equity is deeply rooted in personal experience and professional growth over more than two decades in Portland. As a white-bodied, neurodivergent individual who has experienced housing insecurity, I’ve navigated complex societal structures that have illuminated the pervasive nature of systemic inequities. These experiences have shaped my understanding of intersectionality and fueled my…

Do Not Squander Your Life

One morning, during the predawn zazen—in between the velvet, inky silence and the deep, sonorous tones of the rin-gong—there is an especially long meditation period, or so it seems. Time seems fluid here, elastic. A minute feels like an hour. An hour is a lifetime is the blink of an eye. Time is everything and has no meaning at all.