By Rebecca Sebastian

Before choosing to spend your hard-earned money on dues, renewing a membership, or adding another acronym to your bio, ask: What does this organization actually do for yoga—and for you?

Getting the Lay of the Land: Why We Join

I don’t know how many times, on how many different platforms, I’ve said that being a yoga teacher is a lonely job. In 2022, I wrote a blog called “Your Yoga Teacher Might Be Lonely” that garnered a lot of attention from friends and colleagues who responded with some version of, “yeah—same.”

And here’s the strange thing: every yoga teacher I know belongs to something—a lineage, a registry, a collective, or at least a WhatsApp group where we share memes about studio pay. But when it comes to formal organizations, the yoga world is both overrun and underserved. There are badges and credentials aplenty, but very few bodies truly advocating for the people who make this profession what it is.

The yoga world is both overrun and underserved.

The credentials—the ones we’re so proud to add to our email signatures, websites, and maybe even tote bags (go ahead, ask me about yoga therapy)—eventually reveal themselves to mean very little. They don’t get us work. They don’t mean much to the general public. And they cost us far more than we’ll ever save in insurance or leggings discounts.

So why do we join?

Credentials don’t get us work. They don’t mean much to the public.

Because underneath it all, we want to be chosen. We want to belong. We want to meet and connect with people who are just as excited about yoga as we are. We want those deep conversations about the meaning of life, and to talk about our own personal transformations until dawn.

Underneath it all, we want to be chosen. We want to belong.

We want…our people.

So we join, hoping for access—to jobs, to community, and to other yoga folks out there in the ether who are just as invested and curious as we are.

How to Read the Fine Print

So what factors should we consider when deciding whether to join a yoga organization? Let’s walk through them, so you can decide which metrics matter to you before you pay your dues.

Mission and Values

Start here. Always.

Take a look at the prospective organization’s website and read the mission and values pages first—before you look at benefits, member webinars, or leadership bios.

Ask yourself:

• Does this organization seek to represent the full scope of yoga—beyond movement, to philosophy, lifestyle, and history?

• Does it primarily advance a corporate-style agenda?

• Does it actually support the professionals within the organization, or just “yoga” in a general, abstract sense?

Yoga will be fine. What needs representation are the people.

That last question matters more than we often admit. Yoga, as a spiritual practice, will be fine. It will outlast all of us, and it doesn’t need us to “take charge” of it. What does need support are the people who teach, educate, facilitate, and practice yoga as their work.

We need organizations that represent people.

After reading the mission statements, explore the rest of the website and the organization’s social media. Does what they put into the world align with the values they claim to uphold? And just as importantly—are those values your values?

Governance & Transparency

Who runs this organization? Who makes the decisions? Does the membership have any real say in how the organization moves forward?

Here’s a quick checklist:

• Financials: Are they publicly available? If not, create a free account on Candid and look them up.

• Board representation: Is there a member-elected board? If members don’t have a voice in leadership, that’s a major red flag.

• Grievance process: How does the organization handle complaints or misconduct? Is this information easy to find and written in plain language?

Fake transparency is just branding in policy language

Fake transparency—policies full of jargon that sound open but say nothing—is just as harmful as saying nothing at all. A word salad is not accountability.

Benefits: The Tangible and the Illusory

Take a hard look at what the benefits of membership actually are. Which are tangible—like continuing education or meaningful access to peers—and which are illusions?

If an organization offers you a logo for your email signature but requires thousands of dollars (plus travel and hotel costs) to access networking events, that “benefit” is illusory. It’s a trick of the light.

If the benefit is a logo but the connection costs thousands, it’s an illusion.

If the organization only offers a handful of webinars each year, with no live or relational component, that benefit is illusory, too.

It’s well documented in association research that people often join for benefits—but they stay for relationships. When people stay without those connections, it’s usually because they feel they have to for their career.

Here’s the truth: you do not need a yoga organization behind your work to succeed in this industry. You never have, and you likely never will. There is no single membership required to work with studios, corporations, or major institutions. I promise.

So make sure your membership actually benefits you.

(Bonus: If an organization tells you that you “just need to take advantage of the benefits” instead of showing you how, that’s not your failure—it’s theirs. The burden of proof is on them, not you.)

Ethics & Accountability

How does this organization uphold the ethical foundations of yoga? This includes—especially—how it protects the public and the community from predatory behavior.

This has long been an issue in our industry, and it remains one today.

Yoga teaching without accountability is just branding.

Yoga teaching without accountability is just branding

It’s long past time we demand better from the organizations that claim to represent us.

Know the Terrain: The Major Types

Pro tip: Choose the organization that helps you grow roots and wings—not just letters after your name.

Red Flags (and How to Spot Them)

⚠️ Badge over substance — If the sticker is the main benefit, reconsider.
⚠️ Opaque leadership — No clear board or financial transparency.
⚠️ Cultural tokenism — DEI language without structural change.
⚠️ High dues, low value — Your dollars should do more than decorate a website.

Evidence from Beyond Yoga

Research across professional associations tells a consistent story: people don’t just join for credentials—they stay for connection, trust, and shared values.

A 2025 report from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) found that education, networking, and community are the primary reasons people join associations—but long-term engagement is driven by relationships and belonging (Why Is Association Membership Valuable?).

ASAE’s Building Community: Your Association’s Strategic Advantage (2025) calls community “the critical strategic asset” behind member retention. And its Why Do Members Lapse? analysis (2018) found that the top reason people leave is simple: the organization no longer provides value.

Across industries, the takeaway is clear. Associations thrive when they are transparent, participatory, and genuinely useful.

Yoga should be no different.

Belonging isn’t bought. It’s built.

Ask yourself:

• Does this group offer real advocacy—or just a logo?

• Is leadership accountable?

• Has the organization’s leadership actually worked as yoga professionals?

• Does membership deepen your connection to yoga and to each other?

Because community isn’t just what sustains a field—it’s what gives it meaning.

The Future of Belonging

I have hope for us.

As our profession evolves, our organizations can evolve, too. Maybe the next iteration won’t revolve around certification or branding at all, but around collective power—teachers, therapists, and community leaders advocating together for fair pay, ethics, and cultural integrity.

Because belonging, at its best, isn’t bought.

It’s built.

By us.

Organizations are made real by how people gather inside them.

India--Chandīgarh--Schools--Unpublished image 1, n.d.

Corporate interchangeability has a look.

If this guide stirred questions for you, you’re not alone.

We created a downloadable Yoga Organization Reflection Checklist to help you sit with those questions—quietly, honestly, and on your own terms.