How I Grew a Grassroots Non-Pro t From Los Angeles to the World

Founder and President of Yoga Gives Back Kayoko Mitsumatsu shares how a grassroots organisation became a global campaign in six years. By Kayoko Mitsumatsu

Giving back to India beneficiaries from West Bengal

Yoga Gives Back was born in my personal yoga practice in Los Angeles in 2007. While working on assignment for NHK, Japans National Public Television, on a feature documentary Social Entrepreneurship in the U.S.A., I learned about Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Dr. Muhammad Yunus micro financing and its impact on millions of poor families in Bangladesh and many developing countries. At home in Los Angeles, I was beginning to appreciate the benefit of my daily yoga classes, and being deeply grateful for feeling healthier physically and mentally. I couldnt help asking, "What is the purpose of becoming so healthy and joyful?"

One ancient teaching from reading Indian philosophy and taking Sanskrit classes hit me hard: "The first half part of your life is to gain experience. The second half is to serve others." I was 47 years old. Yoga is a luxury, available only to those who can afford time and leisure pursuits at US$15-20 per class. In America alone US$6 billion a year is spent on yoga and yoga-related items and activities. The yoga community offered many donation classes, but none that focused on giving back to India, the birthplace of yoga, where poverty still afflicts 75 percent of the population. Yoga classes and studies introduce practitioners to ancient Indian philosophy but offer little or no connection with contemporary Indian society and people. There is something wrong with the contrast between billions of dollars spent on yoga and millions of people living in poverty. I felt responsible for sharing the benefits, for giving back to so many Indians in need. The Power of a Simple Message The Yoga Gives Back campaign was created first with my yoga teacher, my brand-consultant husband and a few supportive friends, and the magical ingredients came together: micro financing + yoga. Even before we worked out our mission statement, we came up with our campaign slogan, the mantra that sparked an almost-immediate grassroots response: "For the cost of one yoga class, you can change a life."

positively, as if they were waiting for something like this for a long time. Fund-raising classes quickly spread to other studios in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Vancouver and Rio de Janeiro. Yoga Gives Back Netherlands & Belgium was also created by a very enthusiastic yoga teacher. In 2012, our global campaign "Thank You, Mother India" sponsored over 100 events in 17 countries and we aim to double the number each year. The simplicity of the message was its power. Partnering with a Reputable Organisation One of the indispensable ingredients for YGBs successful growth has also been valuable introductions to people who could boost YGB in various stages. At a very early stage, I was fortunate to be introduced to the Grameen Foundation headquartered in Washington D.C., Dr. Yunus international organisation, whose mission is to replicate micro financing throughout the world.

Once we secured this relationship, more doors started to open for YGB. I was soon introduced to Grameen Foundations partner, Grameen Koota in Bangalore, to learn more about how micro financing works in India. My first trip to India in 2007 was an eye-opener. I encountered real people with real needs, and discovered a vital world another planet away from the serenity of the yoga studio. How could my personal practice be meaningful if I could not reach out to these real people living today in real need? Using Your Unique Talent It was fortunate that one of my best friends, an Emmy Award-winning editor, told me to take my video camera, as wed never know how such footage could become useful later. On that first trip to India, I filmed street children in Delhi, shanty towns in Mumbai, as well as inspiring stories of women micro-financing lenders from Grameen Koota in the villages I visited with my husband (who serves on the YGB board of directors). Footage from the first trip was far from being great, and during my last four visits there, I learned how to multitask meet new people, interview, and learn about them while filming all on my own. One YGB story is about Jayashree, whom we met on my first trip as we filmed her journey to get the first micro loan to escape sheer poverty. Last fall, we made our fourth visit to her home outside Bangalore, funding her business as well as her son Guruprasads education, who is now studying at a distant medical dental college. YGB is now providing tuition and committed to support his studies until he becomes a dentist, under the new Sister Aid SHE (Scholarship for Higher Education) programme.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, Founder and President of Yoga Gives Back

We talked to local yoga teachers and studios owners, and it was truly inspiring that yoga practitioners responded so

A micro-finance lender in Bangalore, who started a toy-making business

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YGB funds the education of 110 young girls and supports orphaned children under the care of Deenabandhu Trust Home, Karnatakahere

A charity class (above) and YGB Ambassadors from Hong Kong and U.S.A. (right) at the 2013 Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong

This is just one example of how a very poor mothers dream truly comes true through YGBs global communitys support. Her familys transformation has been made into a series of films since 2007 as Jayashrees Journey: From Transaction to Transformation. Today, YGB Films has also become YGBs unique core tool for our global campaign, attracting worldwide sponsors as well as being screened at many global yoga events such as the recent Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong, and selected for the Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles. The Power and Limits of the Volunteer Team Determined to keep administrative costs to a minimum so that the highest possible percentage of funds raised go straight to recipients in India, YGB was built almost entirely on volunteer labor. Working with volunteers, though gratifying in so many ways, has its own challenges and disappointments. Many are called to help, but few are stalwart and reliable enough to be depended on. All of us have full-time jobs. Not everyone can constantly handle the extra load. I've learned to be realistic with my goals and limits, to pace myself and be patient. Yet through a combination of good fortune, karmic momentum, and learning to choose more carefully, YGB has a team that has become more and more responsive and responsible and able to lead the organisation to the next stage of growth. Yoga Gives Back Netherlands & Belgium is a great example. This global branch was created by a yoga teacher who had the same idea, but found out that YGB already was doing it. So, she simply became our Dutch

partner, creating the entire website in Dutch and reaching out to the Dutch yoga community. Today, her reach also includes Belgium, inviting dozens of fundraising events with donations exceeding US$10,000 in 2012. YGBs global ambassadors and local team members continue to spread the campaign, which also has been an indispensable element for YGBs outreach. Clear Mission Statement It was essential to clarify YGBs mission, to create a mission statement I could steer the growing organisation by: "To mobilise the global yoga community to empower women in India to build sustainable livelihoods." Some members objected to the militancy of the word "mobilise," but in the final analysis I wanted to make it clear that we were taking this as seriously as a military campaign. Theres enough softness and fuzziness associated with yoga already, but yoga is as tough as the human spine and it would take toughness to accomplish the objective of giving back to India in a meaningful and tangible way. We wanted the programme to be global because yoga itself has become global, as popular in Europe as it is in the Americas, Middle East or Asia. We focused on women not because yoga practitioners are primarily women (which is less and less true anyway) but because Dr. Yunus discovered that it was almost always women who were the agents of change in poor villages, who use their profits to educate children and to improve the entire familys well being. Women are the best poverty fighters. The concept of sustainability was introduced because no one grows and thrives through subsidies alone. We would focus on small business loans and education scholarships to provide a solid infrastructure for future self-development.

As things progressed and I re-visited India regularly to record the progress of YGB recipients and learn more about their needs, I realised we could not be content working through organisations like Grameen Foundation only but had to be hands-on and direct in order to inspire effective fund-raising and develop a network of similarly-minded and motivated partners. I always envisioned bridging two separate worlds through YGB. Along the way a series of major breakthroughs have enabled this vision. ASTI (American Service to India), a veteran non-profit organisation with over three decades of successful support work for hundreds of non-governmental organisations in India introduced YGB to the most credible NGOs, NISHTHA in West Bengal and Deenabandhu Trust Home in Karnataka. In 2010, YGB was able to create a new direct funding program "Sister Aid" to provide micro loans and education funds directly to mothers and children. Today, we fund over 240 people, each with a minimum five-year commitment. In the first year, Yoga Journal, the largest Yoga publication in the world, agreed to sponsor our campaign in their magazine. In the last few years, London-based Yoga Magazine took up the challenge and continues the cause, giving us feature after feature and introducing us to the global yoga community, which has been a tremendous outreach opportunity for us. Two of YGB Board members also write regularly for the Huffington Post. Renowned events such as Maria Shrivers Womens Conference in Southern California, the Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong, and the Ashtanga Yoga Confluence have invited YGB which has proven to be another exciting way to reach beyond our own limits. As YGB continues to grow, we have welcomed more and more yoga-related brands and other corporations to support our mission by donating goods for our events or committing some percentage of their business proceeds. We have been very fortunate to have companies such as Stella MacCartney, Pure Yoga, Jala Clothing, Manduka, YogiToes, Organic India, Zico Coconut Water, Morgan Stanley and many more. The launch event for our annual "Thank You, Mother India" campaign was generously hosted by Dr. Amarjit Marwah in 2012 at his estate in Malibu. It was not a yoga-class event but our first real fundraiser dinner. We are planning another bigger event there this fall, and hope to learn each time how to raise more funds this way. Looking back these six years, the biggest lessons I have learned so far is not to repeat the same mistakes and to expand our goals. My next task is to find a way to grow YGB into a robust sustainable organisation.
Tokyo-born Kayoko Mitsumatsu is a documentary film maker now living in Los Angeles. If readers want to advise or contribute in any way to YGB, please write to: info@yogagivesback.org. Or visit: www.yogagivesback.org.

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