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A CASE STUDY OF

THE WELLNESS

INITIATIVE AND

SOCIAL VENTURE

PARTNERS

BOULDER COUNTY 2013

Case Study of The Wellness Initiative and Social Venture Partners Boulder County

E X E C U T I V E

S U M M A R Y

SVP INVESTMENT

INVESTEE PROFILE Mission The mission of The Wellness Initiative (TWI) is to improve the physical health, social & emotional

development, and academic performance of low-income youth through yoga-based wellness programs.

History TWI was founded in 2006 to provide yoga to students and educators in Colorado and to address

the growing concern that low-income students of all ages suffer from increasingly stressful and unhealthy

lives. Because many of the students in TWI programs lack the opportunities and tools to relax, reflect,

strengthen, and focus, their self-confidence, physical health, and academic performance suffer.

Major Programs The Wellness Initiative has three major programs:

Yoga for Students Yoga classes are offered before or after school, during the school day as an elec-

tive, or as part of the physical education program. TWI served 2,300 students in 37 schools last year.

Tools for Teachers workshops Two-hour Tools for Teachers (TFT) workshops provide classroom

teachers with yoga-based techniques (conscious breathing, basic yoga poses, simple movement

games, and visualizations). TWI has reached more than 500 classroom teachers directly through TFT

workshops and over 8,000 students indirectly by providing their teachers with new tools.

Yoga for Teachers Some partner schools choose to offer on-site yoga classes to their teachers and

school staff members before or after regular school hours. This program engages educators in yoga

and mindfulness. Some schools offer these classes in six- to eight-week sessions.

The Wellness

Initiative

Consulting

Hours:

670

Cash Grants:

$56,000

2010 to 2013

Youth

Programming &

Health Care

Access


E X E C U T I V E

S U M M A R Y

Rationale for SVP Investment While TWI was a young organization (only four years old at the time of

initial partnership) it had undergone extremely rapid growth and expansion. SVP was impressed with the

upstart non-profit’s rapid development and saw the opportunity to work with an organization that really

had a need for capacity building—its growth in numbers served had begun to outpace organizational

ability to handle it. TWI was innovative and entrepreneurial in nature, and at the time of the partnership,

had a relatively new Executive Director who was ready, willing and able to work with SVP. There was

potential for crossover impact in multiple areas of SVP interest (youth programs and health care) and the

organization provided a great balance to SVP’s portfolio of investments. Partners were particularly inter-

ested in the broad-based impacts TWI could demonstrate with its youth clients to include not just physical

health, but also social development, emotional development, and academic performance.

Key SVP Impacts

Helped TWI with its first real human resources planning by developing a comprehensive set of job

descriptions, a pay scale, and opportunities for promotion for teachers

Worked to shift the organization beyond survey-based evaluation to a more advanced program

evaluation model with the long-term goal of becoming an evidence-based program

Supported the organization during its first-ever successful strategic planning process in the form of a

three-year growth plan that outlined key, attainable goals for the organization

Helped the Board with planning and development and Board member transitions

Solved some significant IT issues, including a new customer relationship management system

(Salesforce.com), class registration system, and a new web host and website

Developed a comprehensive fund development plan and a meaningful social media strategy

Provided financial assistance to facilitate the first-ever Program Director hire, which lifted a huge

burden off of the Executive Director’s shoulders

Provided market research for professional development to aid TWI in its future offerings for educators

SVP Partners Involved

Tim Rohrer Lead Partner /IT

Dee Andrews Social network marketing

Dennis Berry Event fundraising

Bruce Borowsky Videography

Caryn Capriccioso Strategic planning

Michael Donovan Financial modeling

Mike Durall Marketing

Emily Davis Fundraising

Jodi Grossman Human resources

Brian Hawkins Board development

Debbie Malden Program development for teachers

Isabel McDevitt Marketing

Jane Sovndal Organizational history/case study

Peter Spear Evaluation


INTRODUCTION The Wellness Initiative (TWI) became a SVP Boulder County non-profit investee in 2010, graduating in 2013. For TWI,

the SVP investment came at a perfect juncture. The school-based yoga education organization had just changed lead-

ership and emerged from its initial founding period into an era of extreme growth. In a two-year period, TWI grew the

number of schools served by about 400%. The organization had great programs, enthusiastic leadership, funding, and

community support and interest, but also an enormous need to work on planning and improve its internal processes

to continue to meet the demand. “They were a startup that had sort of outgrown their staff,” recalls Lead Partner Tim

Rohrer. “They really needed to do capacity building. So there was a clear need for what SVP could provide.”

For SVP, the partnership was an ideal fit—it offered impact in multiple areas of SVP interest (youth programming and

health care) and the opportunity to work with a smaller, dynamic non-profit in the midst of growing pains where SVP

could provide expertise. Additionally, new Executive Director Mara Rose (hired in fall 2008) had worked in entrepre-

neurial studies and was ready and willing to work with SVP, always a key indicator of potential success. “Because of my

background in social entrepreneurship, I was in the place where I wanted their support,” she recalls. “I understood the

model, and was willing to pull back the curtain and show them what was going on and really work with them.”

BACKGROUND TWI was founded in 2006 to provide yoga to students and educators in Colorado and to address the growing concern

that low-income students of all ages suffer from increasingly stressful and unhealthy lives. The organization was the

brainchild of Debbie Huttner, who served as the founding Executive Director for the first two-and-a-half years of the

organization’s existence. Fellow founder, Gila Steinbock, was instrumental in helping get it launched and served on the

Board during the first few years. At the time of its inception, TWI served five schools in the Boulder/Denver area.

In TWI, SVP took a chance on a smaller organization that had been growing at an extraordinary rate—it had increased

its reach by twenty schools in just four years of operation. At the start of the partnership (2010), TWI only employed

one salaried position (the Executive Director), yet had managed to continue its rapid expansion and had obtained a

large amount of funding from respected agencies, such as the Colorado Health Foundation. While TWI was function-

ing, it had reached some growing pains and roadblocks to continue its expansion and was at a promising stage for

capacity building assistance.

SEEKING ITS OWN SHAVASANA: A Case Study of The Wellness Initiative and Social Venture Partners Boulder County

By Erin Shaver

for SVP Boulder County


SEEKING ITS OWN SHAVASANA

SUMMARY OF CAPACITY

BUILDING ACHIEVEMENTS

IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS

• Human Resources Helped TWI

develop a comprehensive set of

job descriptions/teacher levels to

allow for growth within the or-

ganization, and first-ever pay

scale for yoga teachers; helped

develop a year-long gathering

calendar to bring TWI teachers

and volunteers together monthly

• Program Evaluation With

encouragement, guidance, and

financial support from SVP, TWI

embarked on two new evalua-

tion efforts in collaboration with

academic institutions to work

toward more sophisticated

evaluation and becoming an

evidence-based program

• Strategic Growth Developed a

three-year growth plan, identify-

ing primary areas for growth: 1)

develop an instructor residency

program to increase capacity for

service to students; 2) expand

into the early child education

market; 3) an increase in the

percentage of program dollars

spent on programs for educators

(rather than students) with

market research to determine

the offerings

• Board Development Helped to

facilitate the beginning of a

Board development plan and

helped evolve the Board through

meaningful leadership changes

continued

SUMMARY OF SVP INVESTMENTS

*Rate = conservatively valued at $100/hour

Furthermore, SVP Partners and their family foundations gifted thousands of dol-lars in additional support as a result of SVP’s relationship with TWI.

INVESTEE’S ANNUAL REACH

*One of the main goals of this partnership was to slow down the rapid and unsustainable growth this organization was experiencing while building up the infrastructure.

Total

Grants Awarded $56,000

Consulting Hours 670

Consulting Value $67,000*

Number of Projects 15

Number of Partner Volunteers 14

Income Expenses Students Schools

2010–2011

$207,862 $217,686 2,002 24

2011–2012

$312,512 $297,210 2,473 34

2012–2013

$333,300 (budgeted)

$308,295

(budgeted)

2,300 37, with initial development in other program areas including residency and programs for educators*



IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS CONT.

• Technology Planning

Developed an IT plan for moving

forward, including a new, more

reliable host for email and web-

site (using Wordpress) that is less

expensive to maintain

• Technology Switched from

Excel spreadsheets to a more

sophisticated customer relation-

ship management (CRM) system

using Salesforce.com and created

an online class registration

system

• Comprehensive Fundraising

plan Wrote a fundraising plan

and offered guidance on the or-

ganization’s largest fundraiser,

Yogathon, now in its fourth year

• Marketing Implement a new

email marketing solution and

improved social media strategy

• Market Research for

Professional Development

Conducted research on the

teacher professional develop-

ment landscape in Colorado to

move forward more strategically

with program development;

offering programs that are self-

sustaining or profit generating,

that meet the core needs of

schools and districts, and that

maximize engagement from

school partners

• Program Director Hire Provided

funds to hire first-ever Program

Director, who became the second

salaried staff member of the

organization and took a great

burden off the ED’s shoulders

continued

EXPLORATION OF IMPACT SVP and TWI had, by and large, a smooth and positive partnership that worked to

help strengthen TWI’s infrastructure. Executive Director Rose joked that, quite

candidly, TWI didn’t seem to have any major crises or “fires to put out” and most

everything was pretty straightforward; SVP was there to provide accountability and

make sure TWI accomplished the things it set out to accomplish. Without that, TWI

would still likely be floundering to keep its organizational operations up to the level

its programs demanded: “If someone has invested in you, and you are accountable

to them, then things seem to get done,” Rose says.2

Key Areas

• Human Resources At the time of SVP partnership, TWI employed about 25 - 30

part-time yoga teachers. There was no variation in pay scale for teachers based on

their time with the organization or their competencies as instructors. (Most signifi-

cantly, some teachers came in with extensive skills and training in the area of edu-

cation and others did not.) “There was essentially one yoga teacher position that

paid the same no matter how many years experience the person had or how long

they had been with the organization,” recalls Rohrer. 1

The organization desperately needed a new pay scale emphasizing an instructor’s

demonstrated skill as a yoga teacher in schools. With the help of SVP partner Jodi

Grossman, TWI was able to develop a comprehensive set of job descriptions for

two different levels of yoga teachers, as well as descriptions for classroom volun-

teers, classroom assistants and teacher coaches (senior teachers who support new

teachers). The project was not only necessary from a leadership standpoint, Rose

says, but was also requested by the teachers themselves, who were wanting to see

that differentiation:

“It helped our teachers see what their opportunities for growth were within the

organization, and I think it just ‘professionalized’ things for us. It was something I

had been thinking about for a while before we did it with SVP. I had the sense that

someone with expertise in human resources could bang it out pretty quickly, but

because it wasn’t my area of expertise, I would be guessing. That made it hard to

motivate to get it done.” 2

SVP also helped TWI develop an annual gathering calendar to bring yoga teachers

and volunteers together monthly, in order to create a stronger sense of community

and connection because the organization now provides its services in thirty-seven

schools that are spread out among six counties.



• Growth Planning Prior to the SVP partnership, TWI had embarked on multiple

efforts to create a growth plan but with limited success. Thus, the organization was

in a bit of a quandary—a back-and-forth between some Board members saying “we

need to do this,” Rose recalls, and others not really buying into it. “It was something

that really needed to get done and hadn’t happened [effectively],” she says. “We

[had] tried.”2

SVP partner Caryn Capriccioso led the Board in a planning retreat during the second

year of the partnership and with that support, the organization was able to develop

its first ever strategic plan in the form of a three-year growth plan. The plan identi-

fied three primary areas for expansion:

1. Development of an instructor residency program to increase capacity

A real strain on the organization had been an inability to find enough

classroom-ready yoga teachers. The idea of a residency program, scheduled

to launch during the 2013–2014 school year, was generated to help address

that issue: “In order to serve more kids we need to make sure we have

enough fabulous teachers in the pipeline,” says Rose.2 The residency

program, a unique offering, will be designed to help TWI grow, to generate

revenue for the organization, and establish TWI as a thought leader in the field of school yoga.

2. Growth into the Early Childhood Education market

TWI was already serving some ECE and preschool centers in Boulder and Denver but with the help of SVP,

it formalized some real goals of expanding further into the ECE market. The three-year goals include:

By 2015…

- Serve 480 low-income Head Start students in 20 classrooms

(in 2012–13, served 43 students in three classrooms)

- Generate revenue by serving 144 affluent preschool students in

6 classrooms (in 2012–13, served 30 students in two classrooms)

3. Increase in the percentage of program dollars spent on programs for educators, with market research driving

the offerings

To date, TWI has been putting 5% of its program budget toward serving educators. During the planning session,

the organization set a goal to increase that percentage to 15% and to do so thoughtfully, informed by research.

“If you impact teachers and the way they teach, it’s a much more concentrated growth plan,” says Rohrer. 1

The planning process turned out to be very productive—possibly one of the most impactful areas of the SVP partner-

ship. “We were able to say to the Board members, you know, SVP is volunteering X number of hours to help us with

this so we need to be excited to volunteer that number of hours,” says Board Chair Rebecca Yarmuth. “It was definitely

the first honest attempt and got further than anything we had ever done before.”4


IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS CONT.

• Budget Forecasting and Pricing

Model Designed a new model

that helps TWI accurately price its

yoga classes and rationalize its

budget forecasting process

• Comprehensive Case Study

Development/Replication

Started the process for TWI to

develop a case study of the

organization over the past seven

years that would serve as the first

step toward either offering

technical assistance to other

organizations or to create a

national chapter/franchise model

in the future


• Program Evaluation TWI had been keeping records of impact for several years, but the evaluation was essentially a

simple, survey-based platform developed by evaluators, not experts in the fields of health or education. There was a

real desire, says Rohrer, to improve the tool and turn TWI into an evidence-based program. “Because school districts

have a limited amount of funding, evidence-based programs are essentially what gets funded,” he says. “The stronger

evidence you can produce, the better. There was a desire to improve the statistical tools they were using.” 1

With encouragement, guidance, and financial support from SVP—and the family foundations of its partners—TWI

embarked on two new evaluation efforts in collaboration with academic institutions. These tools will help TWI

understand the impact of its programs more clearly, and will position it better for future funding from new sources that

require hard data:

1. Through an introduction from SVP partner Peter Spear, former dean of CU-Boulder’s College of Arts &

Sciences, TWI worked to develop a new evaluation tool with two CU-Boulder doctoral candidates and their

professor. The tool focuses on social emotional development and proving outcomes through better statistical

models. The tools were tested during the 2012–2013 school year with the hope of implementing them during

the 2013–2014 school year with secondary school students.

2. TWI is also working with the Colorado School of Public Health, in collaboration with a professor and a group

of her master’s degree students, to identify an existing, validated tool that TWI can use to measure social/

emotional well-being among 3rd through 12th grade students. It was tested in spring of 2013 with plans to roll

it out to more schools in the fall of 2013 with support from a class full of students dedicated to measuring the

impact of TWI’s programs for the entire school year.

• Market Research for Programs for Educators TWI had not had the time, resources, or opportunity to carefully

survey the market to understand how to best serve educators (classroom teachers and other school staff members).

In partnership with SVP partner Debbie Malden, TWI spent several months working to understand the professional

development landscape in Colorado schools. Malden conducted interviews and gathered research to reveal some

promising opportunities, but also significant barriers. “What we came to learn is there is lot of interest in what we are

doing, and in theory, lots of opportunities to bring it to schools,” says Rose. “But while there are requirements for

schools to bring things like anti-bullying programs and wellness programs into the classroom, there is no funding for it

and there is no accountability for it.”2 The research effort also confirmed that the current programs offered by TWI for

educators are good choices and that the next steps are to better market those while also developing new offerings.

• Information Technology At the start of the SVP partnership, TWI’s donor database was a set of Excel spreadsheets.

While there was at least some information—the donor’s name and contact info, and perhaps what they donated or

what events they attended—there was no real system or capability for merging the spreadsheets and creating one

database. With the support of Lead Partner Rohrer, TWI moved from its startup days of antiquated discrete spread-

sheets to a modern customer relationship management system through Salesforce.com. SVP helped TWI create a

comprehensive database to manage all of the organization’s constituents (school partners, funders, parents, students,

volunteers, instructors, etc.) and activities. “The idea was to keep a comprehensive list of these people versus using

many different Excel spreadsheets,” recalls Rohrer.1


Cont. on page 8


• Information Technology cont. With the help of SVP, TWI also created an IT plan for moving forward, set-up a new,

more reliable host for its email and website, and built a new Wordpress website that is less expensive to maintain.

• Board Development Board of Directors development in this partnership was not as intensive as it has been in other

SVP engagements, but the impact was still very significant. Since Rose was the only staff member at the start of the

partnership, the Board was essentially her only support for organizational decisions, says Board Chair Yarmuth: “When

you are working by yourself, the Board serves as your colleagues to a certain extent.”4 Thus, it was all the more critical

for the Board to know its role and be able to execute it in such a small organization. Through a Board Development

Plan, SVP helped train Board members to better understand their responsibilities, especially as it pertains to fundrais-

ing. Recalls Yarmuth:

“Now we can go forward as a Board and recruit more sophisticated Board members because we have a lot more

concrete and sophisticated structure to it, because of SVP. Before it was, ‘oh, we all believe in this cause, and it’s such

a wonderful mission.’ And I think we had good faith about it. Now we have a lot of concrete things to point to.”4

• Program Director Hire Early on in the partnership, Rose was spending a lot of her time doing everyday, routine

duties such as cleaning and delivering yoga mats and figuring out teacher scheduling at various schools. At that point,

she had limited capacity to do the visioning and fundraising work ideally required of an Executive Director. With the

financial assistance of SVP, TWI was able to hire its Program Director, Kristi Gall, during the partnership. This hire was

essential to helping Rose become more focused on Executive Director-like duties, as well as freeing her capacity to

work on projects with SVP. Recalls Rohrer:

“The Executive Director was spending a good chunk of her time doing things like driving mats to different drop-off

locations. With a very small organization, that’s OK, but when it got to the size it was, it just didn’t make sense. The

Program Director was able to take over a lot of that day-to-day management of the teachers, the supplies, getting

supplies to the different schools, and scheduling classroom space issues.” 1

ANALYSIS & REFLECTION

CHALLENGES/LESSONS LEARNED

While the partnership was not wrought with any major controversies or crises,

the relationship still faced challenges during the three years.

Teacher Pipeline

When Rose took over as TWI Executive Director in fall 2008, the organization was still

only in a handful of schools. Even before the economy went into a tailspin, she knew

that it was essential to create systems and infrastructure for long-term success im-

mediately, before embarking on a significant growth campaign. Cont. on page 9



Teacher Pipeline cont.

She negotiated with the Board that she would not be expected to expand the reach of the organization for the first

year under her leadership, as she knew that building infrastructure was key to the sustainability and impact of the

organization. The Board was supportive, but Rose was in for a surprise when she met with a program officer from

TWI’s biggest funder, who told her the grant they funded several months earlier required TWI to be in twice as many

schools. “So I had to double the size of our organization within three months of my starting,” recalls Rose. “The

growth was not at all what I wanted.”2

Due to quadrupling schools in a matter of just a few years, it became obvious over time that TWI was experiencing an

unanticipated shortage of yoga teachers. “While there are plenty of yoga teachers in the world,” Rohrer says, “there

are not as many yoga teachers who can also do classroom management.”1 Essentially, in growing its programs so

quickly, TWI had unexpectedly outgrown its supply of qualified, classroom-ready yoga teachers. This shortage had

started to become a real strain on the organization’s growth and future direction.

As part of the strategic planning process, TWI developed a plan for a new Teacher Residency program, to launch

during the 2013–2014 school year that should help combat the teacher shortage. Rose also believes that it will help

develop the best quality teachers possible:

“You don’t have to be an amazing yoga teacher to teach yoga to kids. We found the biggest predictor for success is

having that educational background. So we are creating this residency to give [yoga] teachers more hands-on experi-

ence with things like classroom management and cultural awareness issues, and the reality of being in a school

setting.”2

Board Transition

At the time of SVP partnership, the Board was in a transition period. Some members remained from the founding

Board and some were new, and there were some philosophical differences that needed to be addressed for the or-

ganization to succeed and thrive. For one, the founding Board only met quarterly and did not get very involved in

fundraising or planning. It was described as more of a ‘numbers Board,’ with some members who wanted to push for

growth above all else. That sentiment succeeded in growing TWI very quickly and successfully, but after Rose’s hire,

the organization had shifted into a phase that required more strategy, planning, and what leadership described as

“roll-up-the-sleeves” fundraising. Initially, there was some tension between the founding Board philosophy and this

new paradigm. With the help of SVP, and the development of a new vision for the Board, the Board naturally transi-

tioned to a new configuration. Recalls Rose:

cont. on page 10



Board Transition cont.

“It’s much easier to bring new people in with new expectations; it’s harder to shift people from how they have been

functioning to something new. I think there is a lot of strength in new blood, and what has been really nice is the atti-

tude on the Board has gotten really positive. The Board meetings used to be pretty negative and contentious feeling.”2

The Board Chair worked to shift morale by making the meetings more fun, especially for the Executive Director: “I

didn’t want the Board meetings to be stressful for her. And I know they had been in the past,” says Yarmuth.4 Both

Rose and Yarmuth credit SVP and Lead Partner Rohrer as being a significant help in making this shift. Says Rose:

“Sometimes EDs can feel a little isolated. Having Tim’s perspective helped validate some of what I was sensing.”2

Time Management

With TWI being such a small organization, the capacity building needs served as both a huge reason for SVP involve-

ment and a potential hindrance in actually getting things done. With the Executive Director as the only actual staff

member at the start of the partnership, it was very hard in the first year to dive into anything substantial. Rose was

essentially the point person for every single project, and in addition to her duties as an Executive Director, was also

doing day-to-day minutiae such as cleaning and delivering 500 yoga mats to various schools all over the Denver metro

area. “I think the beginning was challenging—the capacity issues made us limited for sure,” she says. 2

Rohrer says that SVP worked hard to not overtax Rose during the early period of the relationship before TWI was able

to bring on a Program Director. Still, he says, there were other ideas and projects that SVP had the ability to provide

assistance on that just didn’t happen. “It wasn’t so much a lack of time as it was just a small organization and trying to

manage what to do and in what order,” he says.1

SVP Abilities

The partnership also experienced a few trials capacity-wise on the SVP end. First of all, Rohrer was new to SVP and

had never served as a Lead Partner before. He admitted that delegating projects was initially a test, especially since

one of the first areas that needed attention was information technology—his own personal area of expertise:

“It actually was a real challenge, to be involved in a hands-on way and be Lead Partner at the same time. Right at the

start there was a specific, large IT need that we wanted to address quickly. Since I was new to SVP, it was easier for

me to do that than get some of the other stuff up and running.” 1

It took a while for TWI and SVP to ramp up, both because of the aforementioned capacity issues Rose faced at TWI

and because Rohrer was new to SVP. Rohrer says the TWI partnership also revealed a possible deficit in SVP Boulder

County’s aptitude to handle IT work. He didn’t feel like he had quite enough support to fall back on in that area, and

thus ended up taking on most of the IT work solo, while also serving as Lead Partner:

“As diverse as SVP’s membership is, there was only myself and one other person who could do IT, so there were some

weaknesses revealed in SVP. SVP Boulder County seems to be more top heavy with planning and strategic work and

Board development people, and we could draw on a number of people for those things. But this partnership showed

there were areas where I think SVP needs to grow its membership in a way.“ 1



THE FUTURE Looking Back and Looking Ahead

The partnership could be characterized as one of the more successful SVP Boulder

County investments thus far. During the three years, TWI evolved from being a

slightly untenable startup emerging from a huge growth period into a more solid and

capable organization. While certainly there is more work to be done, it is now strong-

er and ready to take on its next stage of growth and development more responsibly.

Says Rohrer:

“SVP's involvement positioned TWI from being a reactive organization, without the

administrative capacity to plan for its expansion, into one that has a much clearer sense of the future and the oppor-

tunities that are on the landscape. Without SVP there is no question that TWI's ad-hoc expansion would have become

unwieldy, if not impossible, to sustain.” 1

TWI says the influence, resources and accountability that SVP provided were instrumental in getting these important

systems in place within the organization. Board Chair Yarmuth says she couldn’t imagine the organization attaining

these same results in this short of a time period on its own:

“Without a doubt these projects would not have happened without SVP. (It’s not like someone would have done

them, but maybe not quite as well.) They would not have happened, period. We were able to fulfill some initiatives

that were desperately needed and just would not have happened otherwise.”4

Yarmuth says the process also helped her personally, re-engaging her commitment to TWI as a whole. She praised, in

particular, the time commitment of Lead Partner Rohrer: “It reinforced my belief in the organization. Because I was

watching Tim commit so much time to the organization, it made me revaluate how important it was to be as com-

mitted as I could be.”4

For SVP, the partnership fulfilled the desire to work with a smaller non-profit in the early pangs of its growth stages

and to make a meaningful difference at the right time, before the organization entered any sort of crisis mode. It was

also able to work with an organization in a burgeoning field—yoga and wellness—that has become more in-demand

in recent years. For Rohrer, being a Lead Partner reinforced his understanding of just how difficult it is for non-profit

organizations to succeed and thrive financially—even when they are delivering a service that is in demand.

Big Changes on the Horizon

As TWI shifts toward the future, a few key changes exist on the horizon. Rose stepped down as ED in July 2013 after

nearly five years with the organization, and TWI will have to start fresh with a new person in its chief leadership

position. Rose thinks this new individual will be better poised to dive into more-Executive Director-like duties right

away than she was when she began in 2008: “My hope is whoever takes over my position is given the opportunity

I wasn’t—to really focus on fundraising and strategy and bigger picture stuff. I was just so bogged down by the

operational needs of the organization. I hope that whomever comes on can focus on those next stage issues, such

as fundraising, strategy, and program diversification.”2 Cont. on page 12



Big Changes on the Horizon cont.

Yarmuth, who helped choose the new director, is pleased with where the organization stands in regard to the new

hire:

“We are in a much better place to have someone come in and give them the context of the job, versus them coming

in and create the context of their job, which was essentially Mara’s experience. I think we are going to be in a much

better place for someone to really hit the ground running, more or less.”4

Growing Field Continues to Evolve

In a field that is growing, changing, and becoming more “in vogue” every week, TWI is poised to be a major player in

any initiatives or strategies to bring more stress management techniques into Colorado schools. Says Rohrer: “Yoga is

just at the beginning point of its growth into the classroom curriculum, and I am sure that TWI will be at the forefront

of innovative ways to bring yoga into the school day.”1

While hundreds of schools offer yoga throughout the country, several school districts in California have recently

added yoga to their curriculum and those trends look to continue in the coming years.5 Numerous studies have con-

firmed that classroom yoga improved students' behavior, physical health and academic performance, as well as their

attitudes toward themselves. Additionally, yoga has shown extensive benefits to certain groups of children, such as

those who have been prescribed medication for disorders such as ADHD.6 Says Yarmuth:

“I feel like every week there is anther article or news story on the research and on the positive effects of yoga on

stress management. We were a little bit ahead of that research and so I feel like it’s nice for us to know that and say

‘yes, that is why we started the organization.’ So I hope we can keep riding the wave

of more and more awareness around what we already knew to be true.”4

She says the partnership with SVP was a great step in helping the organization “ride

this wave” and be seen as a leader in the field. The partnership was not only valuable

in the specific, tangible capacity-building work they were able to do together, but

also in the “feather in their cap” it gives TWI, having the backing of SVP:

“I have worked for other non-profits that have applied for SVP funding and didn’t

get it, so I really have a sense of how competitive it is. For people who know what

SVP is about, it’s a major bonus to have that on our resume now.”4


Sources Cited 1 Phone interview with Tim Rohrer, April 24, 2013. 2 Phone interview with Mara Rose, May 1, 2013. 3 The Wellness Initiative Fall 2006 Newsletter. 4 Phone interview with Rebecca Yarmuth, April 24, 2013. 5 “Namaste. Now Nap Time.” (February 14, 2013). Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from www.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703386704576186463216602684.html. 6 Jensen, Pauline S. (May 2004). “The effects of yoga on the attention and behavior of boys with Attention-Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).” Journal of Attention Disorders. Volume 7.

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