John E. Fetzer Institute

The Fetzer Institute allegedly received funding through an endowment left in the will of late radio and television host John Fetzer.  ² According to its 2023 tax form, the Institute reported $765,527,522 in net assets. ³

Background

The John E. Fetzer Institute was reportedly formed in 1954 by radio and television host John Fetzer, a radio and television host who would also become the owner of the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball (MLB) team. The institute would be created to provide grants towards “””religious, charitable, scientific, library, or educational purposes.”” ^{4 5 2} Following his death in 1991, Fetzer’s will left an endowment towards funding the institute towards researching “shared flourishing at the intersection of science and spirituality.”  ⁶ The Fetzer Institute has provided grants towards research and policy towards history, environmental science, journalism, education, political science, anthropology, religious studies, medicine, and communications. ⁷

Grantmaking

According to its 2023 990 tax forms, the Fetzer Institute reported $10,493,914 in grants made that year. ⁸ This included an $800,000 grant to Baylor University towards developing a “longitudinal global study on causality in human flourishing executed by Gallup.” ⁹

That same year, the Fetzer Institute donated a $500,000 grant to the New Venture Fund (NVF) to support several of the NVF initiatives such as the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Civic Engagement Fund and the Voter Justice Project. ¹⁰ Other grants that year included $250,000 to the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, $200,000 to the Social Good Fund, $50,000 to NEO Philanthropy, $200,000 to the Alliance for a Just Society, $200,000 to the Donors of Color Network, and other grants towards the National LGBTQ Task Force and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. ⁹