The Give Back Yoga 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).

In 2013, our Founder Chelsea Roff reached out to her friend Rob Schware — the Executive Director of Give Back Yoga — to ask if the organization would sponsor her Yoga for Eating Disorders project. She had just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $50K to launch our organization, but she needed a way to make the donations tax deductible. Rob responded with a challenge: "If you raise $50K, we'll do it."

44 days into the 50-day campaign, the campaign was only at $19K. Chelsea knew it was time to do something dramatic, or the campaign would fail. So she climbed onto her roof, laid down on her yoga mat, and vowed to remain there until the rest of the funds were raised. For five days, she held a widely-publicized yoga strike until the campaign reached its goal. Today, Eat Breathe Thrive still thrives as a fiscally sponsored nonprofit under the Give Back Yoga umbrella.