Working on Your Behalf
Last Updated: February 21, 2017
Many of you may have noticed the increase in activities by Yoga Alliance® over the last few years. It has been a busy time! Below you will find a summary of all the areas where we are working on your behalf.
Providing Free Education
Included with your membership is access to hundreds of hours of free educational content. Our workshops, articles, and podcasts cover how to market yourself, teach certain populations, structure your class, and many more topics. In 2016 alone, we hosted more than 25 free member-only workshops and published 70 educational articles.
Expanding Member Discounts
Since its humble beginnings in 2013, we now offer Member Perks from 28 partners. These Perks and discounts are a great benefit to teachers, schools, and studios. Members can save hundreds of dollars by taking advantage of discounts on liability insurance, travel, yoga props, clothing, and much more!
Giving Back to the Community
With your help and the help of corporate sponsors, the Yoga Alliance Foundation began in 2013. Since then, we have granted 31 scholarships to yogis and awarded 14 International Day of Yoga community grants. In 2016, we also introduced the Community Awards to recognize members that are going above and beyond in helping underserved populations through yoga.
Protecting Yoga
Yoga Alliance has a great record of standing up for the yoga community. In 2016, we were successful in preventing or overturning the regulation of yoga teacher training programs in 5 states. The threat of regulation for yoga teaching and yoga teacher trainings is growing around the world.
We’re also working to have yoga included in the PHIT Act at the federal level.
Improving the Member Experience
We know how busy our members are – that’s why we’re continually improving our systems to be more efficient. Over the last few years, we have reduced the school application processing time from 6 months to less than 15 business days, email wait times from 5 business days to an average of 24 hours, and average call center hold times to 46 seconds!
Increasing Your Exposure
More and more people visit our Directories. In 2016, over 1.1 million directory searches were made. That’s over 100,000 searches per month by people looking for yoga schools, teachers, and continuing education providers like you!
Developing New Products and Services
We continually evaluate new products, services, and system improvements. In 2016, we proudly introduced the YACEP® designation and Directory, which has been on our members’ wish list for quite some time. In 2017 and beyond, there are many other features and product updates planned.
Providing Much-Needed Research
Last year, in partnership with Yoga Journal, Yoga Alliance financed the 2016 Yoga In America Study, which surveyed the U.S. population to gauge their participation and interest in yoga. Our goal is to extend that research, covering new topics and locales.
Extending Our International Reach
Our credentials are gaining in popularity and value all over the world. We are now seeing teachers and schools join us from over 160 countries worldwide.