Senior Program Officer, Organizational Culture

The Fetzer Institute is pleased to partner with DRG to conduct this search.

BACKGROUND

The Organization

The Fetzer Institute’s strategies work together to cultivate a sacred worldview and deepen spiritual grounding across sectors. The goal is to inspire collective action toward a more loving, interconnected, and flourishing world.

The Fetzer Institute’s strategies work to inspire collective action towards shared flourishing. Fetzer believes that viewing the world as inherently sacred — through a diversity of faith and spiritual beliefs — is necessary for societal transformation. Therefore, we currently invest in collaboratives working to transform systems through a spiritual point of view. Collaboratives are groups of organizations or individuals who work together to think through their respective sectors and how we might raise awareness and implementation of sacred-rooted solutions for society’s greatest needs.

The Position

The Senior Program Officer (SPO), Organizational Culture, functions as a Senior Program Officer with specialized expertise in organizational development, organizational transformation, and sacred-centered organizational culture. Partnering closely with the Vice President, Organizational Culture, this role helps shape, implement, and continuously refine the department's external strategy while cultivating projects, partnerships, and learning that advance spiritually grounded organizational culture.

The position serves as a strategic thought partner and implementation leader, supporting Fetzer's partners and strategic initiatives as they strengthen organizational culture and transformational practices. This work includes direct engagement with partners as well as coordinating and leveraging external consultants, facilitators, and subject matter experts as needed.

This role sits at the intersection of organizational development, systems change, leadership, spirituality, and philanthropy. We are looking for someone who is equally comfortable helping organizations navigate strategy, leadership, and systems change while engaging questions of spirituality, meaning, and human flourishing. The successful candidate will be energized by helping shape an emerging field rather than applying established practices, while contributing to Fetzer's broader mission of helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world.

Immediate Priorities

Build the first living expression of a sacred-centered field through relationships, a pilot cohort, and a funding model that reflects practice.

• Bridge internal culture to external expression, an active case study (Org-to-World Translation)
• Create deep, sustained relationships with cross-field partners
• Build and initiate relationships with 10–15 aligned practitioners/orgs
• Design and recruit the pilot mutual learning cohort (3–5 orgs)
• Develop the spiritual development funding model (with clear parameters)

ROLE OVERVIEW

Primary Responsibilities

Strategy, Learning, & Field Building -

Partner with the Vice President, Organizational Culture to refine and advance Fetzer's external Organizational Culture strategy through strategic thinking, learning, field-building, and partnership development. Specific responsibilities include:

• Help refine, implement, and continuously strengthen the department's external strategy related to sacred-centered organizational culture, organizational transformation, belonging, and spiritually grounded leadership.
• Translate learning from projects, partners, programmatic colleagues, research, and the broader field into strategic refinements, recommendations and emerging initiatives.
• Contribute to the development of frameworks, resources, learning agendas, and field-building efforts.
• Identify opportunities for new partnerships, collaborations, and strategic investments that advance the Organizational Culture strategy.
• Synthesize learning across projects and partnerships to inform future strategy, investments, and the continued development of Fetzer's Organizational Culture work.

Partner Support & Organizational Accompaniment - Support Fetzer's strategic organizational partners as they strengthen organizational culture and transformational practice. Specific responsibilities include:

• Build trusted relationships with partners, practitioners, and field leaders.
• Design and support learning experiences, retreats, convenings, and communities of practice.
• Accompany organizations through organizational learning and culture development using relational, developmental, spiritual, and systems-informed approaches.
• Coordinate and partner with external consultants, facilitators, coaches, and subject matter experts to support partner organizations.
• Help partners adapt and apply Organizational Culture frameworks within their own organizational contexts.

Project Development & Partnership Stewardship - Develop, steward, and continuously adapt strategic initiatives and partnerships from concept through implementation, ensuring projects advance Fetzer's mission while fostering learning and impact. Specific responsibilities include:

• Imagine, design, and co-create strategic initiatives with colleagues and partners that advance both Fetzer's mission and the missions of partner organizations.
• Develop project concepts, outcomes, work plans, learning agendas, budgets, and evaluation approaches in collaboration with partners, ensuring projects are both strategically grounded and responsive to emerging opportunities.
• Steward projects and partnerships throughout their life cycles by cultivating trusted relationships, facilitating ongoing learning, monitoring progress, and adapting initiatives as new insights and circumstances emerge.
• Plan and host retreats, workshops, convenings, and other collaborative learning experiences that deepen relationships, strengthen organizational capacity, and advance project goals.
• Prepare project concepts, recommendations, and proposals for senior leadership and Board consideration.

Secondary Responsibilities

Internal Collaboration & Leadership - Contribute to the leadership and effectiveness of the Organizational Culture department and the Institute through collaboration, thought leadership, project leadership, and active participation in Fetzer's community practices. Specific responsibilities include:

• Collaborate closely with Organizational Culture colleagues and staff across the Institute.
• Contribute to departmental planning, strategic learning, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Contribute to external thought leadership through writing, presentations, facilitation, and collaborative learning.
• Supervise assigned project staff (e.g., project coordinator or associates) and coordinate the work of external consultants and contractors, as appropriate.

Learning, Inner Work and Community- Fetzer aims to “be” the change we want to see in the world. Therefore, every community member is expected to have a commitment to nurture their inner life, continual learning, and be active in the community. Specific responsibilities include:

• Attend the Tuesday morning Community of Freedom Gatherings from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT each week.
• Optional 2:00 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. EDT meditation time, every day.
• Independently directed professional and spiritual development built into your work plan.

Professional Experiences

The ideal candidate demonstrates an unusual integration of organizational development expertise, systems thinking, and spiritual maturity. They are equally comfortable engaging questions of organizational strategy, culture change, leadership, and systems transformation as they are engaging questions of meaning, purpose, spiritual practice, and shared flourishing. They understand that lasting organizational transformation requires both structural change and the cultivation of the personal/spiritual and relational capacities that make new ways of working possible. Essential qualifications include:

• 10+ years of professional experience (or equivalent graduate education and experience) in organizational development, organizational consulting, leadership development, systems change, organizational psychology, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience accompanying organizations, networks, or collaboratives through organizational transformation, culture change, adaptive leadership, or developmental processes.
• Deep familiarity with spiritually grounded, contemplative, developmental, relational, or interspiritual approaches to organizational and leadership practice.
• Strong strategic thinking combined with excellent implementation and project stewardship skills.
• Exceptional facilitation, relationship-building, and partnership development experience.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex ideas into practical organizational strategy.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, complexity, and emergent environments.
• Commitment to personal growth, reflective practice, and spiritual development.

To be most successful in this position, candidates should also have the following qualities and sensibilities:

• Passion for asking and seeking answers to big questions.
• Comfort exploring matters related to faith and/or spirituality.
• Deeply collaborative
• Curious and intellectually rigorous
• Reflective and committed to lifelong learning
• Spiritually mature and relationally grounded
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and emergence
• Systems-oriented and developmentally informed
• Creative and adaptable
• A good sense of humor

Work Environment

This position is primarily Kalamazoo-based, must be in the office Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9 am- 3 pm. Work is typically performed in safe and comfortable surroundings without exposure to adverse environmental conditions.

Approximately 30-40% time for travel, both domestic and international, and an expectation of working occasional evenings or weekends.