Partnership
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Give Back Yoga Foundation and Eat Breathe Thrive have been working together to bring yoga to people with eating disorders for over a decade.
Give Back Yoga Foundation (GBYF) is a nonprofit organization that works to bring the benefits of yoga to all people, especially those facing mental health and physical hardship (e.g., addiction, incarceration, poverty, military service, and eating disorders).
Partnership story
In 2013, our founder Chelsea Roff asked Rob Schware, Executive Director of Give Back Yoga, to sponsor her Yoga for Eating Disorders project. She had launched a $50K crowdfunding campaign to start the organization—but needed a fiscal sponsor to make donations tax-deductible. Rob replied, “If you raise $50K, we’ll do it.”
With just six days left and only $19K raised, Chelsea climbed onto her roof, rolled out her yoga mat, and vowed to stay until the goal was met. Her five-day yoga strike drew national attention—and it worked.
Since then, we’ve partnered with Give Back Yoga on numerous initiatives, from co-creating online courses and conducting research with Dr. Catherine Cook-Cottone’s lab, to co-hosting the 2022 and 2023 Yoga and Recovery Symposiums featuring leaders like Ashley Judd, Gabor Maté, and researchers from Harvard and Yale.
Today, Eat Breathe Thrive continues to thrive under Give Back Yoga’s fiscal sponsorship.
About GBYF
Give Back Yoga Foundation was founded in 2007 by Beryl Bender Birch and Rob Schware. What began as a retirement project has grown into an international nonprofit organization with registered branches in the United States and the United Kingdom. Over the past fifteen years, we have awarded more than $400,000 in grants, distributed over 35,000 yoga mats, and helped over 10,000 teachers bring yoga into prisons, hospitals, VAs, and communities in need.