Questions? Answers.

You can sign up for our mailing list to stay updated on Fetzer’s work. We’ll send you the latest research, highlight exemplar organizations that should be on your radar, and provide stories about how spiritual solutions really work!

If you are a funder, we want to be connected! Fetzer builds transformative relationships with high-net-worth donors, donor advisors, and foundations that can catalyze and resource a movement rooted in faith and spirituality. You can join a growing community of funders by talking with our Ally Development department.

We also invite you to explore our Spiritual Solutions Library — a rich collection of case studies, resources, and voices that reflect our mission and amplify similar efforts around the world. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, potential collaborators, or a deeper sense of connection, you’ll discover meaningful approaches to addressing social problems through spiritual solutions.

While impossible to fully comprehend or describe, Fetzer understands the Sacred as the common source of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. It is the infinite, creative energy that gives birth to the universe. It is Love that creates and sustains life. The Sacred has many names: higher power, God, Brahman, the universe, goddess, Wakan Tanka, Jesus, etc. The sacred way of seeing the world combines scientific ways of knowing with spiritual ways of knowing towards a world of shared flourishing.

What does “the Sacred” mean to you? What is sacred in your life?

A lot of suffering has happened under the guise of organized religion. War, slavery, human rights violations, genocide, spiritual abuse, child abuse…these are real problems that have been or continue to be perpetuated in the name of the Sacred. But we must distinguish between misuse or distortion and the Sacred, itself. In this way, we can honor the Sacred without denying what’s been done in its name.

Many of the largest shifts in society have been chartered by people of faith. The Civil Rights Movement was launched in the Black Church, and the idea of the equality of all people came directly from Christian sacred texts. The Indian Independence Movement utilized the principles of nonviolence and universal love that come directly from the Hindu sacred texts. Indigenous nations have led conservation efforts and modeled stewardship, protecting biodiversity and defending ecosystems from rainforests to waterways. And much of the world’s vital infrastructure — charities, orphanages, hospitals, schools, soup kitchens, strong communities — are sustained by religious organizations.

From inner transformation, healing, ritual, and reconciliation to the teaching and practice of love, compassion, forgiveness — these, too, stem from our ancient wisdom traditions. It’s a nuanced conversation. The Fetzer Institute strives to name and address the harm, while acknowledging and deepening the life-giving dimensions of organized religion.

Spiritual solutions are about seeing with the heart and reclaiming the Sacred in social change.

At Fetzer, we believe that many of the challenges facing our world — division, disconnect, injustice — are not only political or economic, but deeply spiritual. Spiritual solutions begin by shifting how we see: from separation to connection, from fear to love, from transactional to relational, from tactical to transformational.

Spiritual solutions don’t replace science, policy, or systems change. They deepen them. They honor inner life while addressing outer conditions. They emerge through compassion, humility, discernment, and sacred relationships with self, others, and the greater Sacred Mystery that holds us all.

Because centering the Sacred is not just a belief; it’s also an intentional practice. And it’s key to shared flourishing.

Spiritual solutions begin where most strategies don’t: within. They invite us to look beyond surface-level fixes and confront the deeper truths beneath our challenges. Rooted in a sacred worldview, spiritual solutions recognize that transformation happens when we align inner change with outer action.

At Fetzer, we’ve seen that effective spiritual solutions often follow a simple but powerful pattern:

1. Diagnose the Problem Differently: Instead of only seeking and exploring what’s broken, we ask “What’s sacred?” This reframes the issue from one of scarcity and division to connection and potential.
2. Center the Sacred: Whether through relationship-building, contemplative practices, ritual, or cultivating shared meaning, spiritual solutions reconnect people to what matters most — Spirit and the full community of life.
3. Shift the Culture: When hearts and imaginations are engaged, systems can begin to evolve. Policy, practice, and even data become tools for deeper, more compassionate outcomes.
4. Nurture Ongoing Transformation: Spiritual solutions are not one-time interventions. They are ongoing commitments that require sustained reflection, humility, courage, and love over time.

We invite you to explore our digital Spiritual Solutions Library to see how faith leaders, activists, artists, and communities around the world are combining sacred wisdom and practical strategies to create meaningful, lasting change.

The Fetzer Institute is spearheading and nurturing the movement of organizations that fundamentally believe centering the Sacred is the path to shared flourishing.

Fetzer believes that viewing the world as inherently sacred — through diversity of faith and spiritual beliefs — is necessary for societal transformation. Therefore, we currently invest in collaboratives working to collectively transform systems through a worldview that is rooted in the Sacred.

While we love, celebrate and honor that you or your organization may be working towards shared goals, Fetzer does not accept unsolicited funding requests. As such, there is no public application process for Fetzer funding. The Institute does not fund projects, programs, or organizations outside of our collaborative-building work.

Our work is grounded in four core values: Love, Trust, Authenticity, and Belonging.

These guide how we show up for one another and the world. We believe that living these values — individually and collectively — is essential for personal transformation and for helping create a more loving, spiritually grounded society.

Drawing heavily on the wisdom of the world’s faith traditions, the Fetzer Institute Board of Trustees developed these affirmations to guide the Institute’s work in catalyzing the spiritual foundation for a loving world.

1. Love is at the heart. Love is at the heart of the Sacred Mystery we call Spirit.
2. Love is relational. Love leads us to embrace our relatedness to Sacred Mystery and the Cosmos, which encompasses the Earth and the community of life it supports, including all persons and society.
3. Love is generous. Love endlessly gives itself away, dynamically and creatively embracing all.
4. Love desires communion. Love desires communion with the beloved and the flourishing of the beloved.
5. Love accompanies us. Love accompanies us each step on our life’s journey. Love, present at our beginning, accompanies us each step on our life’s journey and is our true destination.
6. Love invites and empowers. Love invites, animates, and empowers human love, the highest expression of our freedom. Human love cannot be coerced. Love calls and helps us to labor freely to unfold our full human potential for shared flourishing.
7. Love deepens our commitment to truth. Love calls forth and deepens our commitment to truth. Moreover, there is “heart-knowing” that complements other valuable modes of knowing.
8. Love animates justice. Love calls us to give freely and gladly what is due to the whole community of life, including other persons and society. Love summons us, despite danger and discomfort, to labor shoulder-to-shoulder with those denied justice. It asks us to transform our hearts and unjust social structures and to unmask and resist all forms of scapegoating and oppression.
9. Love heals. Love empowers us to open ourselves to healing, help others mend, re-knit torn societies, and transform and heal cultural memories. Love can give us the personal and collective courage for deepening honesty, repentance, restitution, forgiveness, reconciliation, and joyous community.
10. Love call us to re-imagine. Love calls us to radically re-imagine our lives, societies, and ways of dwelling on Earth. It calls us all to solidarity in Love, rooted in our plural experiences of Sacred Mystery, for the shared flourishing of the community of being.

Our building’s triangular design is symbolic: the shape symbolizes the mind-body-spirit connection. John E. Fetzer believed in the power of geometry and symbolism to create spaces that inspire reflection and transformation.

Yes, you can stay at the GilChrist Retreat Center in Three Rivers, Michigan! GilChrist offers solo and group retreats in cabins that are designed for contemplation and rest. Visit GilChrist’s website today to explore more.

Fetzer is committed to supporting the whole person — mind, body, and spirit. Our benefits are designed to reflect that commitment, with generous health coverage, flexible schedules, paid leave, professional development, wellness and spiritual resources, and more. Our goal is to nurture a community of freedom and shared flourishing for every member of our team.

We offer flexible work arrangements depending on your role’s needs. Most positions follow a hybrid model that includes two in-office days — typically Tuesdays and Wednesdays — on our main campus in Kalamazoo, Michigan. We believe that trust, belonging, and authenticity grow through intentional connection, which is accomplished both in-person and virtually. As a learning organization, we’re always experimenting and evolving our approach to find what best supports our people and our mission.

We’re always excited to connect with people who feel called to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. If you don’t see an opening that fits your experience, we encourage you to check back soon — new opportunities arise as our work continues to evolve.