For Bill, Jeff and Jennifer Gross, giving is a family affair. Together, they founded the William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, which in 2018 supported CHOC with a $5 million gift to expand our small baby unit (SBU). Then, in 2019, they generously donated $2 million to elevate care within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
About seeing his son and daughter build upon his legacy of giving, Bill says: “Oh, it’s everything. My children will continue the journey.”
Deepening Their Partnership
The Gross family had been valued philanthropic partners for years, and their CHOC journey deepened through a tour of the NICU and its unique SBU. On their tour, Jeff and wife Jenny saw how their philanthropy could impact the units and the babies they lovingly treat. With little ones of their own, both Jeff and Jenny felt an emotional pull to help improve the care of CHOC’s newborns. After the tour, the family committed to expanding their partnership with CHOC.
A Big Impact on CHOC’s Smallest Patients
The Gross family’s transformational gifts will allow CHOC to create an environment that respects and supports the physiologic needs of babies to grow and develop after being born prematurely. It will also give parents an opportunity to form strong relationships with other families sharing similar experiences. And perhaps most importantly, it will offer SBU families private patient rooms, which encourage the critically important bonding between mother and baby.
“It was a natural fit for us,” Jenny says, “because we are parents ourselves. To think you can make a donation that could help a child survive and go on to live a long, healthy life is very touching.”
In the end, the gift is about one family’s heart for supporting other families. “CHOC changes many lives every day and is truly a world-class children’s hospital,” Jeff says. “We’re just honored to be a part of it.”
