Fetzer Institute

The Fetzer Institute is a private nonprofit organization based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, established by John E. Fetzer, a broadcast pioneer and former owner of the Detroit Tigers. Its work is organized around the idea that inner life, spiritual awareness, relationships, and public action are interconnected. The institute describes its mission as helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. Fetzer’s intellectual and programmatic orientation treats reality as sacred and emphasizes the centrality of Spirit, the dignity of every person, and the sacredness of the planet. Rather than functioning primarily as a conventional grantmaker in one narrowly defined field, it supports projects that connect spiritual and scientific approaches to human development and social change. Its areas of interest have included faith and spirituality, health and healing, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, forgiveness, education, democracy, civic life, leadership, and organizational culture. The institute’s resources derive substantially from the estate of John E. Fetzer. After his death in 1991, most of his assets, including proceeds associated with the sale of the Detroit Tigers, Fetzer Cablevision, and other enterprises, were bequeathed to the organization. A 2020 reference described the endowment as exceeding $560 million, although that figure is time-specific and should not be treated as a current valuation without a newer source. Over several decades, Fetzer has funded or helped convene work associated with emotional intelligence, social and emotional learning, mindfulness-based stress reduction, teacher formation, forgiveness research, meditation research, and studies of spirituality and health. Its support for the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale contributed to the wider use of a measure of ordinary spiritual experience in social-science research. The institute also helped establish a scholarly network focused on forgiveness and supported the Shamatha Project, a longitudinal study of intensive meditation training and its effects on compassion, psychological functioning, and physiology. The organization extends its work through partnerships, publications, commissioned studies, media underwriting, and gatherings of researchers, practitioners, and civic or religious leaders. Its Seasons retreat center in Kalamazoo is used for partner convenings, while the GilChrist Retreat Center in Three Rivers, Michigan, offers contemplative and spiritual programs to the public. Fetzer has also supported or underwritten public-facing media, including Krista Tippett’s On Being, Louie Schwartzberg’s Moving Art, the documentary Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times, the PBS series God in America, and Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the institute increasingly emphasized spirituality’s relationship to democratic health, civic virtues, partisan reconciliation, and a relationship-centered understanding of reality. Examples include a report on faith and healthy democracy, writing by president and chief executive Bob Boisture on civic virtues and partisan division, and a 2020 study of how people in the United States understand spirituality. The institute has also developed internal workplace practices around John Fetzer’s concept of a “community of freedom,” seeking to align staff culture with its broader mission. Fetzer remains an active philanthropic and convening institution rather than a commercial product brand.

The Fetzer Institute emerged from the philanthropic vision of John E. Fetzer, a Michigan broadcaster, entrepreneur, and owner of the Detroit Tigers. Fetzer’s interests extended beyond commercial broadcasting and sport into questions about consciousness, spirituality, human development, and the relationship between personal transformation and social responsibility. He wanted the organization bearing his name to investigate how physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of experience could be integrated in ways that encouraged human growth and constructive action. Fetzer’s death in 1991 marked a major transition in the institute’s institutional resources and reach. He left most of his assets to the organization, including wealth connected with the sale of the Detroit Tigers, Fetzer Cablevision, and other business interests. This endowment gave the institute the capacity to operate as a significant private funder of research, civic initiatives, educational work, and public communication. A reference cited an endowment exceeding $560 million as of June 2020; the amount is historical and may not represent the present value. During the 1990s and afterward, the institute supported work that helped bring spiritual and contemplative questions into dialogue with psychology, medicine, education, and social science. Its funding contributed to Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence and the development of social and emotional learning, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness-based stress-reduction research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Parker Palmer’s teacher-formation programs, later associated with the Center for Courage & Renewal. These activities reflected Fetzer’s preference for supporting networks, researchers, and practitioners whose work could connect inner awareness with outward service. The institute also backed empirical research on stress, social support, compassionate love, religiousness, spirituality, health, and healing. Work connected with the National Institutes of Health, the General Social Survey, and the World Health Organization helped place questions about spirituality and well-being within broader research programs. In 1994, Lynn G. Underwood developed the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale while at the institute. The sixteen-item instrument measures ordinary spiritual experiences in daily life rather than extraordinary or mystical phenomena, and it was subsequently translated into more than 28 languages and used in social-science research. Fetzer expanded its interest in forgiveness during the 2000s. In 2009, it worked with forgiveness scholar Everett Worthington to establish a network for researchers in the field. The following year, the institute released a survey examining love and forgiveness in American society. It also provided substantial support for the Shamatha Project, led by B. Alan Wallace and Clifford Saron. Completed in 2013, the project studied whether intensive meditation practice influenced compassion and other positive human qualities, as well as the psychological and physiological processes associated with those changes. Alongside grantmaking, Fetzer developed a convening model. Its Seasons facility in Kalamazoo became a setting for contemplative retreats, scholarly meetings, leadership gatherings, and collaborations involving researchers, civic actors, and spiritual practitioners. The GilChrist Retreat Center in Three Rivers broadened the organization’s public-facing contemplative activities. Convenings have produced resources concerning spiritual heritage, the sacredness of other people, democratic practice, book-club discussion, and virtual sacred space. In the 2010s, the institute increasingly connected spiritual development with public life. It supported work on democracy, civic virtues, organizational culture, and the healing of political division. In 2018, president and chief executive Bob Boisture published work on civic virtues and partisan divides. In 2019, Fetzer funded a report by Paul D. Miller for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission on faith and healthy democracy. In 2020, it commissioned and published a national study of the meaning of spirituality. These projects formed part of a broader effort to explore what the institute calls the sacredness of reality through both scientific and spiritual ways of knowing. The institute has also used popular media to broaden access to its themes. Its support has included Krista Tippett’s Peabody Award-winning On Being, Louie Schwartzberg’s Moving Art, the documentary Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times about the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and PBS productions such as God in America and Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. Internally, Fetzer has sought to make organizational culture part of its mission. John Fetzer described the desired workplace as a “community of freedom,” in which staff members develop an intentional relationship to the organization’s agenda. Under Bob Boisture, the institute introduced policies and staff-development practices intended to help employees embody the mission of building a spiritual foundation for a loving world. A 2020 Center for Evaluation Innovation report documented this participatory approach to organizational change. The institute also works with co-funders including the John Templeton Foundation, Democracy Fund, Hewlett Foundation, Einhorn Collaborative, and Stand Together. A related Fetzer Franklin Fund, established through the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust with institute support, advances scientific exploration of relationship-centered views of reality and sponsors publications and conferences in advanced science.

• 2020

  Study of spirituality in the United States published

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  The institute commissioned and published research on how spirituality is understood and experienced in the United States.

• 2020

  Participatory workplace-change evaluation published

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  The Center for Evaluation Innovation documented Fetzer’s effort to develop a mission-aligned, participatory workplace culture.

• 2019

  Faith and Healthy Democracy report supported

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  Fetzer funded a report by Paul D. Miller examining the relationship between faith and democratic health.

• 2018

  Civic virtues and partisan division become a visible focus

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  Bob Boisture published work addressing civic virtues and the healing of partisan divides, reflecting the institute’s expanding democratic-life agenda.

• 2013

  Shamatha Project completed

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  A Fetzer-supported longitudinal study concluded its investigation of intensive meditation training and its links to compassion, positive qualities, and mind-body processes.

• 2010

  Survey of Love and Forgiveness released

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  The institute released a survey examining attitudes and experiences related to love and forgiveness in American society.

• 2009

  Forgiveness research network created

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  Fetzer worked with Everett Worthington to create a network intended to advance scholarly research on forgiveness.

• 1994

  Daily Spiritual Experience Scale developed

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  Lynn G. Underwood developed the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale while working at the institute; the measure later gained international use in social and health research.

• 1991

  Fetzer leaves most of his estate to the institute

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  Following John E. Fetzer’s death, most of his assets were bequeathed to the institute, creating the financial base for its long-term philanthropic work.

• Institute founded by John E. Fetzer

  [1]Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org

  John E. Fetzer established the institute to support work integrating physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of human experience.

A spiritually oriented philanthropic and convening institution positioned at the intersection of inner development, scientific inquiry, social healing, democratic life, and responsible action.

• Grantmaking

  Philanthropic grants

  Fetzer provides grants and co-funding for work related to spirituality, faith, health, healing, compassion, forgiveness, education, democracy, civic life, leadership, and organizational culture. Its grantmaking generally favors projects that connect inner development with social action and that can contribute to wider communities of practice or research.

• Research and evaluation

  Research programs

  The institute supports interdisciplinary research on spirituality and health, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, forgiveness, meditation, compassion, social support, and human development. Projects have involved academic researchers and major research institutions, with outputs including measurement tools, surveys, longitudinal studies, and scholarly networks.

• Retreat and convening center

  Seasons

  Seasons is the institute’s Kalamazoo-area retreat and convening facility. It is used for gatherings involving researchers, spiritual leaders, civic practitioners, young leaders, and organizational partners. Convenings may be contemplative, scholarly, strategic, or designed to generate public resources and collaborative initiatives.

• Retreat and public program center

  GilChrist Retreat Center

  Located in Three Rivers, Michigan, GilChrist Retreat Center offers contemplative and spiritual programs and is open to the public. It extends Fetzer’s interest in reflection, spiritual practice, and human renewal beyond its grantmaking and research activities.

• Knowledge resources

  Publications and educational resources

  Fetzer produces, commissions, or helps disseminate reports, guides, videos, and other resources on subjects such as spirituality, democratic practice, forgiveness, sacredness, spiritual heritage, and civic relationships. Examples include resources connected with spiritual meaning, We the People book-club discussions, virtual sacred space, and practicing democracy.

• Scientific philanthropy

  Fetzer Franklin Fund

  The Fetzer Franklin Fund was established through the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust with support from the institute. It advances scientific exploration of relationship-centered views of reality and supports publications and conferences involving fields such as quantum physics and quantum mechanics.

• 2020What Does Spirituality Mean to Us?

  United States

  Fetzer commissioned a study examining the meanings, practices, and experiences associated with spirituality among people in the United States.

  Outcome. The resulting publication became a resource for the institute’s continuing work on spirituality and the sacredness of reality.

  Source
• 2020Community of Freedom workplace initiative

  United States

  Fetzer developed policies, staff-development efforts, and participatory evaluation practices intended to align its internal culture with its mission of building a spiritual foundation for a loving world.

  Outcome. The Center for Evaluation Innovation documented the organization’s approach to co-creating and evaluating organizational change.

  Source
• On Being support

  United States

  Fetzer has been a major underwriter of Krista Tippett’s On Being, a public media program exploring spirituality, ethics, meaning, and human experience.

  Outcome. The program received a Peabody Award and broadened public discussion of spirituality and moral life.

  Source
• Public media and documentary underwriting

  United States · International audience

  The institute has supported public-facing productions including Moving Art, Mission Joy: Finding Happiness in Troubled Times, God in America, and Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers.

  Outcome. These projects extended Fetzer-supported themes of spirituality, healing, contemplative practice, and interfaith understanding to broad audiences.

  Source

• 2020

  Integrate scientific and spiritual ways of knowingStrategy

  Background

  The institute sought to develop its concept of the sacredness of reality without limiting inquiry to either religious interpretation or conventional scientific analysis.

  Action taken

  Fetzer commissioned spirituality research, supported related publications and convenings, and continued funding work connecting science, spirituality, and social action.

  Aftermath

  The approach became a framing principle for later work on spirituality, democracy, healing, and relationship-centered reality.

  Source

• 2018

  Expand emphasis on democratic healing and civic virtuesStrategy

  Background

  Fetzer increasingly connected spiritual development with democratic culture, civic responsibility, and the problem of partisan division.

  Action taken

  President and CEO Bob Boisture published work on civic virtues and healing partisan divides, while the institute supported related convenings and resources.

  Aftermath

  Democracy, civic life, and social repair became more visible elements of the institute’s program portfolio.

  Source

• 2013

  Complete and disseminate findings from the Shamatha ProjectOther

  Background

  The institute supported a long-term investigation into whether intensive meditation training changes compassion, positive human qualities, and related psychological and physiological processes.

  Action taken

  Fetzer provided major funding for the project led by B. Alan Wallace and Clifford Saron.

  Aftermath

  The longitudinal project concluded in 2013 and contributed to research on meditation and human development.

  Source

• 2009

  Build a scholarly network around forgiveness researchStrategy

  Background

  Fetzer identified forgiveness as an area where spiritual practice, psychology, health, and social relationships could be studied together.

  Action taken

  The institute worked with Everett Worthington to create a network of scholars contributing to forgiveness research.

  Aftermath

  The initiative was followed by the 2010 Survey of Love and Forgiveness in American Society.

  Source

1. 1Fetzer Instituteen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Fetzer Institute official websitefetzer.org