Yoga Alliance is a nonprofit membership association, founded in 1997, that sets standards and runs teacher and school credentialing programmes for the global yoga community.
Yoga Alliance is a nonprofit membership organisation founded in 1997 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It describes itself as the world's largest nonprofit yoga association, serving a global membership of yoga professionals, practitioners, and advocates. Its stated purpose is to set standards for quality, integrity, and accessibility in yoga education and practice.
The organisation's central work is credentialing. Its Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) certification is designed to ensure that teachers meet consistent standards of training and professional practice, while the Registered Yoga School (RYS) certification applies comparable standards to training institutions. Underlying this are technical domains that include credentialing and certification standards development, teacher and school training standards, nonprofit membership management, and wellness and accessibility programme development.
Yoga Alliance operates across the yoga and fitness, wellness and health, education, healthcare, and nonprofit and professional association sectors, and is also active in refugee and humanitarian support. It partners with teachers, studios, schools, and advocacy groups, and states a focus on reducing barriers to practice and expanding yoga into diverse communities, with commitments to accessibility, diversity, and inclusion. As a nonprofit, it reinvests its resources into supporting the global yoga community.
The organisation frames its vision as "More Yoga, Better World" and lists integrity, kindness, and bold action among its operating principles.
