The Karma Fund
Dear Karma Yoga Community,
We send our love and prayers for continued good health and safety to you and your loved ones during this holiday season.
This has been both a beautiful and challenging year. Ram Dass once said that making friends with change is an opportunity for growth, but it requires a consciousness that holds an inner quality of equanimity and openness to the unknown.
2020 began with the untimely news that our lease in Bloomfield Hills was going to be terminated. This ultimately required an urgent expedition to find a new home—just as the Coronavirus global pandemic began to ravage the state of Michigan and the rest of the world.
By the grace of the universe and divine guidance, we ultimately found a beautiful new studio home in Bingham Farms. This new space required us to incur a significant build-out expenditure, including critical Coronavirus retrofitting investments and capital expenditures across a wide range of health and safety measures, such as ventilation and PPE—an unexpected cost, to say the least. All of this while navigating the unchartered waters of a five-month State-mandated closure that financially strained the business, yielding significant revenue loss.
While we were blessed to have the opportunity to open our new home for a short period of time starting in August, the strict occupancy limitation placed upon our in-studio classes, previously purchased client classes still needing to be used up first, coupled with necessary health and safety protocols, found us further dipping into year-over-year revenue loss.
Bottom line, even when the studio is opened at a limited capacity, we don’t bring in new revenue just yet. The typical yoga business model generally relies on pre-purchased classes to be used at a later date.
Today, as we further lean into the inevitability of change and the unknown (mostly through an emerging virtual yoga world), the Karma Yoga “brick and mortar” home in Bingham Farms remains temporarily closed (yet once again) due to a series of State-mandated partial shutdowns.
Many of you have graciously supported Karma Yoga during these challenging times, whether it be attending one of our socially distant and limited in-studio classes in the Summer and Fall, or logging onto one of our virtual classes on MINDBODY...you’ve been there for us, and we’re so grateful.
In the Spring we launched The Karma Fund for those that felt called to support Karma Yoga. Your willingness to support Karma Yoga has really touched my heart. During these extended government-mandated closures, Karma Yoga continues to cover the studio’s usual fixed expenses (staff payroll, rent, utilities, insurance, virtual platform support, internet fees, etc.). While federal and local government relief may or may not be available, the statistics are alarming and there’s overwhelming demand and competition for small business aid.
So, thank you, we would love your continued support. Our vision for a more compassionate world has never felt more urgent. While we cannot share physical space together, we remain committed to a shared practice of spiritual care on MINDBODY and on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. I am incredibly grateful for the beautiful service our teachers have so selflessly offered; true Karma Yoga.
If you feel called to support Karma Yoga, we welcome your contribution to our efforts. All contributions will go towards a general fund to support Karma Yoga operations so that we can continue to serve our beautiful yoga community as soon as we open our doors again, into 2021, and beyond.
If we raise over $30,000, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Yoga By Design Foundation, a non-profit that provides no-cost yoga, mindfulness, and meditation to underserved and underrepresented communities.
We also humbly ask that you please consider sharing this campaign with your fellow yogis, friends, neighbors, and family. The more you share, the more opportunities we get to inspire others to support our beloved Karma Yoga studio.
Blessings and gratitude,
Katherine Austin Wooley
Founder & Owner | Karma Yoga
About Us
Founded in 2003, Karma Yoga prides itself on offering students integrity, authenticity and high-quality yoga instruction. For more than 17 years, Karma Yoga has been a unique place for our community, providing a sacred and safe environment, known for quality and integrity.
Based in Metro Detroit, Karma Yoga offers a wide variety of yoga classes and workshops and is a place where our collective can come together both in-studio and virtually— not only to practice yoga and receive the many physical benefits but also to receive the tools necessary to cultivate balance, peace, and joy back into their lives.
The entire person will be nourished: mind, body, and soul.
For more information click here.
