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For more than 60 years, Transcendental Meditation (TM), a simple meditation technique for inner calm, has been taught to millions of people across the globe. It’s powered by the Maharishi Foundation, a worldwide nonprofit with a focused mission: teaching the 20-minute, twice-a-day meditation practice that studies have shown reduces anxiety and cortisol and improves brain function.

TM can only be learned through in-person instruction, and with its global reach and hundreds of locations worldwide, ensuring the integrity of the teaching is maintained for every single person is key.

“We are one organization,” explains Charles Hall, department head of the national communication office for TM. “All of our teachers are certified through a central training body, and receive regular updates to keep their skills refreshed.”

That unified structure means that whether you’re in Topeka or Tokyo, the meditation technique being taught is exactly the same. But it also creates a big challenge: how do you empower local centers to run their own marketing while keeping every message aligned, on brand, and easy to execute, without adding more oversight or headcount?

For the TM organization, the answer wasn’t just about finding a tool for communication. It was about finding a way to empower its most important asset: its teachers.

Think globally, market locally

With over 155 centers across the U.S., the national office needed a better way to support local teams — without becoming a bottleneck.

“The challenge for us has been, how do we provide the right tools so that our centers across the country can do the best job they can in their local areas?” says Charles. “Most people are not trained as professional writers or graphic designers. Their expertise is in presenting our programs to the public and providing follow-up to the TM community in their area.”

Maintaining brand consistency and clear communication across a vast network was a major hurdle. They needed a system that could give them brand governance while giving local centers the autonomy to customize professional, on-brand emails for their own communities. “With Constant Contact, we can do the editorial and design work centrally, which enables our local centers to get the most done with the least effort.”

The right tools for a non-techy team

After evaluating several options, they chose Constant Contact Teams, a platform designed to help organizations scale marketing across multiple locations without adding complexity. According to graphic designer Marty Hulsebos, a few key things stood out: the design tools were strong, the pricing was good, and there was a clear commitment to improving the product.

“We had this sense that Constant Contact was a lot better in that regard,” says Marty. “They were putting a lot more attention on improving the product.”

Constant Contact Teams provides an account structure that mirrors how TM operates: a centralized primary account with subaccounts for each location. From there, the national office can create and share pre-approved templates that local centers can use instantly — no need to design from scratch or wait for approvals.

Marty now serves as the creative engine for the network, building templates for newsletters, events, and announcements that are instantly available to every location. Instead of starting from scratch, local teams can simply customize what they need and hit send. 

This support has been a game-changer for instructors who aren’t tech-savvy, Marty says. “Now, any of our teachers, regardless of their technical ability, can take an email template and just change a few things without having it break easily.”

Saving time while staying on-brand

The new system had an immediate and powerful impact. For the local teachers, the biggest win was the time and stress saved. They no longer had to be part-time graphic designers or marketing managers. With ready-to-use templates and centralized support, they can focus on what they do best — teaching.

“We got a lot of feedback saying they really appreciate the fact that we’re providing this level of support,” Charles says. “It takes a lot of the effort out of the process of generating their own local publicity.”

At the same time, the national office gained full visibility into what’s being sent across every location, without needing to review every campaign. “We’re able to design materials that can be used by any of the centers and that will fit within our overall look and feel,” Charles says. “And that’s very important for us.”

The numbers tell the rest of the story. Across their 155 U.S. locations, TM centers have more than 261,000 subscribers and have sent over 9,500 campaigns in the last year alone, achieving an impressive average open rate of over 49%. It’s a clear sign that the community is more connected and engaged than ever.

Aligned for the future

For TM, email isn’t just a communication tool — it’s how a distributed organization stays aligned, connected, and moving forward as one.

By creating a system that is both powerful and easy to use, Charles, Marty, and their colleagues have built a foundation for the future. They’ve ensured the TM organization can continue to promote its mission with consistency and professionalism, no matter how large the network grows.

Ultimately, their success isn’t just measured in open rates or campaigns sent. Charles says, “For us, return on investment means how well we’re empowering our TM teachers to focus on their core mission: helping people around the world to find inner peace and lead happier, healthier lives.

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