Social Enterprise Case Study: Umbrella Yoga CIC
A Story of Community, Sustainability, and Innovation
Ellie Firth is the founder of Umbrella Yoga, a community interest company that provides yoga sessions to various groups of people with additional needs, as well as freely available community yoga sessions. The organisation aims to help people overcome barriers to practising yoga, such as physical limitations or struggles with mental health issues. With a background in research in autism and mental health, Ellie realised that yoga could be valuable for people with different issues and decided to train as a general yoga teacher to start delivering sessions that would work for people with additional needs.
In the last 18 months, Umbrella Yoga has grown, with more people involved in developing the direction of the company and more skills in different groups. The company has four main groups that they work with: community yoga, learning disabilities groups, older adults and dementia-friendly, and trauma survivors. They prioritise accessibility, community focus, sustainability, upliftment, and collaboration. The company values sustainability by developing their own trading and evidence-based yoga practices. They created yoga prompt cards for older adults and dementia groups, and plan to expand to learning disabilities and community groups, with the goal of eventually selling them. Umbrella Yoga aims to offer new and innovative ideas while maintaining their core values.
The vast majority of Umbrella Yoga’s income comes from grant funding, which they use to provide funded community-based sessions. The company also collaborates with other organisations such as day centres for adults with learning disabilities and women’s support groups. These organisations usually have their own grant funding and make a small contribution to Umbrella Yoga’s running costs. Some groups pay outright for Umbrella Yoga’s sessions, while others source their own grant funding and contract Umbrella Yoga’s services.
The decision to set up Umbrella Yoga as a community interest company (CIC) was driven by Ellie’s vision of creating a community-based company that feeds everything it does back into the community. Additionally, Umbrella Yoga’s range of services, which includes staff wellbeing and corporate yoga, allows the enterprise to trade and generate its income. As a CIC, Umbrella Yoga aims to be more sustainable, generate its income, and reinvest it back into the groups they work with.
Umbrella Yoga identified an opportunity to offer corporate yoga sessions and staff wellbeing sessions that could generate income to support the vulnerable groups they work with. Unfortunately, the pandemic made the first 18 months of the business challenging, and they could only provide minimal services. It was at this time that they had to transition quickly to delivering yoga online. The company tried to engage businesses by offering sponsored yoga sessions, where companies could pay for sessions and then sponsor an additional needs group to have matched sessions. But businesses were not receptive to this idea, and the company had more success engaging with public and fellow third sector companies. The company is committed to continuing to explore ways to make this trading income piece of the business successful.
The social enterprise has nine yoga teachers, including the founder, who all work on a freelance and self-employed basis. They have a fixed rate of £60 per session, which covers their travel and preparation time. The company’s three executive directors, who are also yoga teachers, are also self-employed but plan to transition to a payroll system this year. Additionally, the company has two co-executive Directors, Rachel Gosling and Pollyanna Steiner, an accounts support person and three non-executive board members, who meet every three months and provide support in between. They currently run approximately 25 yoga sessions per week but are still working on developing effective systems to generate trading income.
During their setup, they had limited support and had to figure things out as they went along. They started with a grant of 10k from Awards for All and a few small funds, but they did not have a solid business plan in place. However, in their second year, they received more support, including a business support meeting that was very helpful.
Collaborating with other organisations has also been crucial to Umbrella Yoga’s success, as it has allowed them to reach new groups and expand their services. By working with other third sector companies and community centres, they have been able to tap into their grant funding and deliver sessions to people who might not otherwise have access to yoga.
Overall, Ellie and Umbrella Yoga are an inspiring example of how a social enterprise can use yoga to benefit vulnerable groups while also generating income through trading activities. By remaining open-minded, listening to feedback, and collaborating with others, Umbrella Yoga has been able to grow and adapt, even in challenging times. With a clear vision and a commitment to sustainability and community-focused values, the future looks bright for this innovative organisation.
With the recently launched Kirklees Social Enterprise Competition we’re looking for new ideas and businesses like Umbrella Yoga to achieve our ambition to make Kirklees into a social enterprise place.
To find out more about how you could make your ideas for a hospitality social enterprise a reality visit the TSL Kirklees website or contact helen@tslkirklees.org.uk.