The Association for NLP was first founded as a membership body in 1985 and was originally a membership organisation owned and run by its members and certifying the NLP trainings ever since. It is a Community Interest Company (CIC), which is a form of social enterprise.They seek to uphold the highest standards and levels of professionalism for theirmembers worldwide. 

ANLP is one of the very few organisations in the world who encourage NLP related research and the further development of NLP models.