The Give Back Yoga Foundation

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The Give Back Yoga Foundation

Yoga can change a life. The Give Back Yoga Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in the United States and a registered charity in the United Kingdom.

We help yoga teachers, health workers, and charitable organizations bring to individuals facing illness, hardship, and inequality. Over the past thirteen years, we have offered yoga to people in prisons, hospitals, and mental health centers. We have trained over ten thousand yoga teachers and healthcare workers, awarded more than $400,000 (USD) in grants, and distributed more than 20,000 mats to kickstart programs in communities where there are barriers to access healthcare. OUR MISSION
Our mission is to bring the therapeutic benefits of yoga to people facing illness and hardship. We help yoga teachers, healthcare workers, and charitable organizations offer yoga to people facing addiction, cancer, eating disorders, incarceration, and post-traumatic stress. We also work with community partners to increase access to yoga for populations that face systemic bias and prejudice. HOW WE WORK
We support a broad spectrum of the yoga service movement; from teachers leading classes in their local communities, to seedling yoga service projects, to established not-for-profit organizations. Our strategy includes three key initiatives:

START-UP SUPPLIES
We send free yoga mats to yoga teachers and healthcare workers to lead not-for-profit yoga projects in their local communities. SMALL GRANTS
We provide funding to yoga teachers and small organizations to kickstart not-for-profit yoga projects. RESEARCH & EDUCATION
We work in collaboration with academic institutions to conduct and disseminate research on the benefits of yoga for individuals facing illness and hardship.

01/23/2026

Love, put into action.

Our new Love in Action collection was created as a simple, meaningful way to support the work of Give Back Yoga Foundation on the mat and off the mat. Every purchase helps sustain our Mat Grants, Seva Grants, and the teachers and therapists bringing yoga to communities with limited access.

If you’re looking for a thoughtful Valentine’s gift—or something cozy that reflects your values—this is love you can wear. 🤍

🔗 https://giveback-shop.fourthwall.com/

01/19/2026

Happy

Sometimes, a yoga mat is more than equipment.
It’s an invitation.
It’s permission.
It’s the first yes someone receives.

Through our partnership with , we provided mats to Kathryn Giebel, who volunteers at the Carson City Senior Center in Nevada, teaching yoga to older adults—many in their 80s and even 90s.

Kathryn’s students live with the realities of surgery, chronic illness, and mobility challenges. With consistent access to yoga and supportive tools, they’re able to maintain balance, strength, and confidence as they age.

“Many of our students have physical challenges from surgeries and disease. We are able to help them maintain balance and mobility in their senior years.”

With 35 regular students—and a waiting list—these mats help ensure that yoga remains accessible, welcoming, and sustainable for seniors in the community.

This is how a mat becomes a first yes.
And this is how

01/17/2026

MLK Weekend invites us to pause and reflect on service—not as something extra, but as a way of living.

In yoga, compassion shows up in small, steady ways: showing up, holding space, offering presence where it’s needed most.

How are you practicing service right now—on or off the mat?

💬 Comment with one way you serve

01/14/2026

What does seva look like today?

In our experience, it looks less like a moment — and more like a commitment.
Like staying. Like listening. Like responding to real needs, over time.

We see so many yoga therapists doing this work quietly, without fanfare.
They don’t call it seva.
They just call it Tuesday.

This post is part of our Practice Notes series — reflections on yoga as a lived, relational practice.

If this made you think of someone whose ongoing yoga therapy work deserves to be seen, we invite you to tag them below.

And if that someone is you — the IAYT + Give Back Yoga Foundation John Kepner Seva Award exists to honor this exact kind of steady, rooted service.

Applications are open through March 25, 2026.
🔗 https://www.iayt.org/page/2026sevaaward

01/12/2026

Happy

Consistency looks like showing up—week after week—in the places people already are. Care looks like making it accessible.

Through our partnership with + , we provided yoga mats to Crystal O’Neal, a police officer and Yoga for First Responders–certified teacher bringing short, trauma-informed yoga practices directly into the Graham Police and Fire Departments in North Carolina.

Crystal offers 20–30 minute classes inside the stations, meeting first responders where they work and helping them build resilience in a job where stress is constant and rest is rare.

“I see our officers and firefighters on their mats recovering during neuro reset and it fills me with joy. You almost never see a first responder relaxed and fully calm during their workday… We are teaching skills that can save their lives.”

When mats stay on site, the practice doesn’t end when class does. Breathwork continues in the field. Regulation becomes a shared language. That’s the quiet power of consistency—and why this work matters.

This is what 🧘‍♂️✨

01/10/2026

Purpose doesn’t begin with obligation—it begins with aliveness.
When we listen inward, our gifts naturally meet the needs around us.

💬 What brings you alive right now?

01/08/2026

Yoga practice trains our attention. Attention leads to action.

Through breath, movement, and meditation, we learn to notice more clearly. Over time, that awareness reveals both the needs of the world around us and our own capacity to serve. This is how yoga follows us off the mat and into daily life.

Yoga service isn’t about saving, fixing, or forcing outcomes. It’s about presence. About doing what we can, with what we have, right now—while staying balanced enough to continue.

Sustainable service asks us to honor the same principles we practice on the mat: listening, pacing ourselves, and finding the balance between effort and rest. When service is rooted in attention, care, and sustainability, it has the power to support both the giver and the communities being served.

🎥 Want to explore this more? Visit our YouTube How Can I Serve? playlist for reflections, conversations, and practical insights on yoga service.

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUy4V0-CnQw&list=PLde7wwAFHzCdF1h9WbEEbvVo_FAE1QUG9

01/05/2026

Happy Mat Monday ✨

Through our partnership with , Give Back Yoga Foundation provided yoga mats to Traci Lundstrom, founder of All Around Yoga, based in Westminster, Colorado.

Traci’s relationship with yoga began while she was incarcerated in 2009. During a period marked by fear, grief, and uncertainty, yoga offered grounding, clarity, and a sense of connection.

That experience shaped her path forward.

Today, All Around Yoga brings yoga and mindfulness into jails and community spaces, supporting people impacted by incarceration with practices that help manage stress, build self-trust, and create moments of calm—both during incarceration and after release.

Learn more about Traci’s work:

https://www.allaroundyoga.com/programs

01/01/2026

Happy New Year from all of us at Give Back Yoga Foundation 🎉

As we welcome 2026, we’re reflecting with gratitude on all there was to celebrate in 2025—from the teachers we supported to the communities reached through yoga service.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to continue saying yes to more yoga teachers and yoga therapists who are building access, connection, and care through their work.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. Here’s to a year rooted in purpose and possibility.

12/30/2025

As the year winds down, we just want to pause and say thank you. 🙏

Because of this community, this year we were able to:
✨ Support yoga teachers and therapists bringing yoga into their communities
✨ Place 3,876 yoga mats into spaces where care and connection are needed most

And the need continues. Requests for mats and program support keep coming in, and your year-end gift helps us step into the new year ready to say yes — to more teachers, more communities, and more moments of care.

If Give Back Yoga’s work resonates with you, there’s still time to make a year-end gift. Every little bit truly helps.

👉 Donate here: https://donorbox.org/sayyes

With deep gratitude,
Give Back Yoga Foundation

12/27/2025

Booker T. Washington said it beautifully: happiness grows when we serve beyond ourselves.

This month, we’re closing the year with a simple invitation to do something meaningful for someone else:

✨ Host a donation class and put healing within reach
✨ Make a year-end gift to support mat grants
✨ Shop our store and give the gift of giving

Every action helps bring yoga, mindfulness, and breathwork to people and places where access has been historically limited.

Let’s lift each other up — and spread a little joy while we’re at it.

Link below
https://donorbox.org/sayyes

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Boulder, CO

Website

http://givebackyoga.org/

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