Transformative Language Arts Network

What Transformative Language Arts Network does

Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2003 and headquartered in Worcester, Pennsylvania (with a mailing address in Nashua, New Hampshire). The organization exists to support and promote individuals and organizations that use spoken, written, or sung words as tools for personal and community transformation. Its core offerings include online classes and workshops, a Certificate in TLA Foundations program, the annual Power of Words Conference, free Virtual Salons, a curated Transformative Language Arts Resources Database, and an annual TLAN Award program recognizing outstanding practitioners, organizations, publications, and volunteers. Programs are delivered via Zoom for live sessions and the Wet Ink platform for asynchronous coursework, with courses priced between $170 and $395 for multi-week formats and $25 to $50 for single workshops, and member discounts applied across all offerings.

The organization operates a community-led, event-driven go-to-market model serving individual writers, poets, therapists, counselors, educators, facilitators, health professionals, activists, and community leaders. Marketing channels include a weekly newsletter, a bi-monthly Substack publication, Virtual Salons, a YouTube archive, the Find a TLArtist member directory, and the annual Power of Words Conference. Revenue is generated through recurring membership subscriptions (annual and monthly), event and class registration fees, individual donations and memorial/honor contributions (including the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund established in fall 2021), and merchandise sales through the TLA Store and POW Store. The network maintains a long-standing partnership with Goddard College dating to 2003, and serves a globally distributed member base with past conference participants from locations including Australia and the Arctic Circle. The organization is supported by a five-person team and a board of directors including the founder, the Managing Director, board members, and a Treasurer.

TLAN is governed by a board of directors and operates without institutional investment, private equity, or public ownership. Its technology stack is built on commodity SaaS infrastructure rather than proprietary systems, and the organization has no disclosed AI or machine learning capabilities. The leadership team comprises founder Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg (Kansas Poet Laureate 2009-2013), Managing Director Tracie Nichols, and board members Amanda Faye Lacson, Scott Youmans, and Treasurer John L. Swainston. The organization maintains explicit commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion across its programming, scholarship access, and community composition.

Name

Transformative Language Arts Network

Legal name

Transformative Language Arts Network, Inc.

Website

https://tlanetwork.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Transformative Language Arts Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2003 that supports practitioners using spoken, written, or sung words for personal and community transformation through online classes, a certificate program, the annual Power of Words Conference, virtual salons, and a curated resources database serving writers, therapists, educators, and activists globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashua

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: Annual and monthly membership subscriptions that provide access to member directory, TLA Resources database, discounts on classes and conference registration, and ability to submit to Substack more frequently.
2. Event Registration: Revenue from class registrations, conference attendance, and certificate program fees.
3. Donations and Contributions: As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, TLA Network relies on individual donations, memorial gifts, and honor donations. The Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund provides scholarship support.
4. Store Sales: TLA Store and POW Store sell merchandise and conference-related materials.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports and promotes individuals and organizations using spoken, written, or sung words as tools for personal and community transformation. It delivers online classes and workshops, a Certificate in TLA Foundations program, an annual Power of Words Conference, free Virtual Salons, a curated TLA Resources database, and a member directory serving practitioners, educators, therapists, and community leaders.

Product overview

The Transformative Language Arts Network offers a portfolio of educational programs centered on Transformative Language Arts (TLA), a discipline focused on using spoken, written, or sung words for personal and community transformation. The core offerings include online classes and workshops, a Certificate in TLA Foundations, the annual Power of Words Conference, Virtual Salons, and a Resources Database. Courses typically combine synchronous Zoom sessions with asynchronous components delivered through the Wet Ink online classroom platform. Programs are designed for personal growth, professional development for facilitators, and community-building across diverse populations including survivors of trauma, people with disabilities, and BIPOC communities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Online Classes and Workshops Recurring catalog of TLA-grounded courses and workshops for personal, professional, and craft development, delivered via live Zoom sessions and asynchronous Wet Ink components. Open to individual learners seeking transformative writing, facilitation, and healing practices.
• Certificate in TLA Foundations A certification program that deepens facilitation skills and builds a network of TLA practitioners, requiring completion of courses such as Foundations of Facilitation and other TLA coursework.
• Power of Words Conference Annual flagship conference featuring workshops, performances, keynotes, and community events focused on using words for personal and community transformation. Held virtually and in-person at venues such as Goddard College and Pendle Hill Retreat Center.
• TLAN Membership Annual and monthly recurring memberships providing access to the member directory, TLA Resources database, discounts on classes and conference registration, and Substack submission privileges.
• Virtual Salons Free community events where TLArtists from around the world gather for member presentations on using words for changemaking. Recordings are posted to the TLAN YouTube channel.
• Transformative Language Arts Resources Database Curated member-accessible database of books, podcasts, literary magazines, organizations, training programs, and practitioners doing TLA work.

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual Power of Words Conference attracting participants from around the world including Australia and the Arctic Circle

Named customers3 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Goddard CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTLA Network has partnered with Goddard College since 2003. The Transformative Language Arts concentration at Goddard was founded by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. Conferences from 2003-2008 were sponsored by Goddard's TLA Concentration, and conferences since 2008 have been a project of TLA Network in partnership with Goddard College. Many TLA Network members have MA degrees in TLA from Goddard.
• Wild ApricotcoreTechnology or IntegrationWild Apricot provides membership software powering the TLA Network website, handling memberships, event registrations, and payment processing through Affinipay.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT): A nonprofit credentialing body for poetry therapists/bibliotherapists with certification programs; adjacent and partially overlapping as the closest peer in the poetry-as-healing niche, though more clinically credentialed and less community/conference-led than TLA Network.

Direct peers

• National Writing Project: A nationwide nonprofit network of educators advancing writing teaching; directly comparable as a membership-based nonprofit that runs summer institutes, teacher development, and a national conference - same operating model as TLA Network's certificate and annual conference.
• Split This Rock Poetry Festival: A nonprofit using poetry for social justice, organizing a biennial poetry festival and programs for activists and change-makers; closely comparable in the explicit intersection of language arts, healing, and social transformation that defines TLA Network's mission.
• Cave Canem Foundation: A nonprofit literary organization for Black poets, running workshops, retreats, and an annual retreat/conference; comparable in mission-driven literary arts education, retreat/conference model, and scholarship-supported access for underrepresented writers - mirroring TLA's BIPOC scholarship model.
• Community of Writers: A nonprofit running summer writing workshops and conferences (Squaw Valley/Olympic Valley); directly comparable as a workshop-and-conference-based literary nonprofit serving similar audiences of writers and facilitators.
• Hedgebrook: A nonprofit literary organization supporting women writers through residencies, workshops, and a leadership lab; comparable as a mission-driven writers' nonprofit with workshop/conference programming, retreat-style events, and scholarship-supported access.
• Amherst Writers & Artists: A nonprofit that trains and supports writing workshop leaders; highly comparable in mission (using writing for personal transformation), training-certification model, and workshop-based membership community.

Broad incumbents

• The Poetry Foundation: A major literary nonprofit publisher of Poetry magazine and host of poetry programming; comparable as a nonprofit poetry-focused organization with educational programming, though operating at substantially greater scale and with a publishing focus rather than TLA's workshop/certification model.
• Academy of American Poets: A large, established literary nonprofit supporting poets through grants, programs, and Poem-a-Day; comparable as a nonprofit literary-arts membership/recognition organization, though significantly larger and more institutionalized than TLA Network.
• Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP): The largest US literary nonprofit, serving 50,000+ members across colleges, universities, and writing programs; comparable as a membership/annual-conference model in the same literary-arts space, but operating at much larger scale and broader scope than TLA.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@TLANetwork
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/transformative-language-arts-network

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Transformative Language Arts Network