Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation Combined Financial Report for 2019

May 16, 2022

Transparency, integrity, equity, and accessibility were the driving themes of 2019 for Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation, as it continued to strengthen its credentialing process and expand services and resources to the widest possible yoga community.

Throughout the year, Yoga Alliance continued the work of its Standards Review Project (SRP), an 18-month period of self-reflection and study to ensure that our credentials support and uphold yoga in the rapidly changing world around us. This project, started in 2018, reflected a commitment to members and the broader yoga community to allow them greater input into the standards underlying the Registered Yoga School (RYS) credential and Yoga Alliance’s policies.

Three major themes emerged from this community-led process:

• The credentials must identify and support members as experts and professionals who stand for quality, safety, and equity in yoga
• Yoga Alliance must update and enhance its standards as well as the application and review process to maintain the integrity of these standards
• As a membership association, Yoga Alliance must support members through continued advocacy work, educational resources, member benefits, and community-wide dialogues that support the field’s challenges and growths

In keeping with its commitment to greater transparency, Yoga Alliance created YAstandards.com to make the findings of the SRP directly accessible to members. Here, members can find reports detailing feedback and information collected over the past two years, along with summaries of each key area of inquiry. This includes the results of its 12,000+ respondent survey, one of the largest yoga surveys ever conducted of schools, teachers, and practitioners; recommendations from “Working Groups” of more than 100 diverse thought leaders who shared their guidance on eight key areas of inquiry within the standards; and feedback gathered from thousands of one-on-one conversations during 2018’s Listening Tour and at yoga festivals and symposia.

In response to the SRP, significant changes were made to the standards underlying the RYS 200 foundational teacher training credential. These included redefining the curriculum model to include 13 defined competencies in four common core curriculum categories earned through 160 hours of in-person, classroom training, and up to 40 hours of online training. Lead trainer credentialing was also strengthened and redefined to include a greater number of teaching hours. The standards will now include a shared Ethical Commitment among Registered Yoga Teachers (RYTs) to follow a Scope of Practice that includes informed consent; a Code of Conduct to ensure safer education; and efforts to ensure equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all in yoga practices.

One message heard across all working groups was the need to address societal and systemic inequities that exist within yoga and beyond. Consequently, Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation committed to engaging in collaborative dialogue on these topics and to spearhead initiatives that would drive progress to make yoga more equitable, inclusive, accessible, and diverse nationally and worldwide.

In 2019 the Yoga Alliance Foundation welcomed Kristina Graff as its new Managing Director and Quentin Vennie as Vice President. As the Foundation moved to address equity as a core component of its work, it developed and led a pilot program to introduce yoga to first graders and their families in one of West Baltimore’s most under-resourced communities.

The Yoga Alliance Foundation provided grants and sponsorships to events and organizations that included:

• Accessible Yoga Conference
• Amplify and Activate Summit, highlighting yoga as a form of social justice
• Black Yoga Teachers Alliance
• Give Back Yoga, which brings therapeutic benefits to people with limited access
• Mandela Project, which brings trauma-informed yoga to public health crisis communities
• Mind Body Solutions
• Off the Mat and Into the World, which fosters activism and community action through yoga
• Race in America Learning and Listening Immersion
• SOULFest, a national inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity movement
• Yoga Service Council, which helps make yoga, and mindfulness more accessible to all

Additionally, Yoga Alliance also announced the intention to create a new Equity in Yoga course meant to address the importance of diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in yoga and which will potentially be required for credentialing all new and renewing RYTs.

In 2019, Yoga Alliance’s membership grew to 105,933 total RYTs and 6,051 RYSs, which led to more than $3.6M (38%) in increased membership revenue from 2018. Combined revenues and support for each organization totaled $13 million in 2019. Revenues are primarily generated through membership dues and fees, and are supplemented by other sources, such as investments and contributions.

Additional financial data can be found in the Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation form 990s and their independently audited combined 2019 financial report. The annual audit was conducted by Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman, Certified Public Accountants.

This is your Yoga Alliance. Members with questions about this report may write to us at feedback@yogaalliance.org.