Bill and Jenny McCloy

NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY DAY: Philanthropists of the Year

Family experience put couple on philanthropic path

By Shauna Steigerwald

Bill and Jenny McCloy didn’t know it at the time, but the birth of their second child put them on a path to philanthropy.

Sam, now 25, was born with Down syndrome.

“Sam was a tremendous blessing,” Bill said. “He just makes everyone around him better.”

And he made the couple want to make the world better for people with disabilities. Through the years, they’ve given financial support and have also gotten deeply involved, giving their time and talents to a long list of nonprofits.

Their first philanthropic involvement happened because the hospital where Sam was born connected them with the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati. They’ve since become contributors and Buddy Walk participants, and Bill has served on the board of directors, development and golf committees and is an advisory council member.

Over time, the couple connected with other nonprofits. Noticing Sam’s love of music, they took him to a lesson with music therapist Betsey Zenk Nuseibeh. She later founded music therapy nonprofit Melodic Connections. In 2014, Jenny told Zenk Nuseibeh she wanted to get more involved. She accepted the invitation to be board president on the spot.

“That’s Jenny to the core. She says ‘What do you need? I’m here for you; I will do that,’ ” Zenk Nuseibeh said. “She’s been my right hand in growing this organization ever since.”

The McCloys have done everything from providing coaching and counseling to donating funds for a development director, to helping move things when the building flooded.

“The relationship I have been able to build with them has infinitely supported the growth of this organization,” Zenk Nuseibeh said. “They’ve given me the confidence to know this is important work and that I can grow it. Without them, I don’t know that I would have been able to be as bold in the growth trajectory of this place.”

Sam also led the McCloys to support Stepping Stones, where he attends an adult day program. And he indirectly led them to LADD, an organization that works to empower adults with developmental disabilities. Sam’s godfather (Jenny’s brother) was looking to get involved and found LADD. He became board president and brought Jenny into the fold. She has since co-chaired the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival (now the Over-the-Rhine International Film Festival) and is on the committee for LADD’s Forever, Home initiative, which buys houses in local neighborhoods where adults with disabilities can live together. Sam lives in such a home in Montgomery.

The McCloys also have a vision for a different type of residence. With other families, they started Lighthouse Landing with an eye toward creating a community for adults with disabilities. When they realized the Ken Anderson Foundation had similar goals, the organizations merged to form Ken Anderson Alliance.

“We could not have achieved many of our goals thus far without their giving spirit and ongoing support,” Alliance Executive Director Kevin Potts wrote in a nomination letter.

Bill is president of the board and Jenny is on the advisory board of KAA, which strives to offer adults with developmental disabilities opportunities to “live, work and engage.” With work and social programs already in place, next up is the “live” piece: The organization is planning a 22-acre, $40 million community, Bill said. The goal is to create an affordable option that will meet residents’ needs and help them feel less isolated.

“We believe adults with disabilities need more choices,” he said. “Our passion is to build this community to give another choice.”

Bringing nonprofits together is key for Bill. He’d love to see more agencies partner to serve their constituencies more effectively and efficiently.

Jim Mason is CEO of Beech Acres Parenting Center, another organization on the receiving end of Bill and Jenny’s support. He appreciates Bill’s ability to connect people and organizations for a bigger impact. Not only has it benefited Beech Acres and other nonprofits, but this ability has served Bill in business, too. Mason knows that part of Bill’s background well: The two “talkers” and fellow Buckeyes became friends after meeting 22 years ago in Vistage, a group for executives.

“Bill’s an innovator and an entrepreneur,” Mason said. “He thinks out of the box.”

Success didn’t happen overnight. Both McCloys came from self-described “humble beginnings.” Jenny grew up in Delhi Township. The youngest of four, she attended Our Lady of Victory, Seton High School and the University of Cincinnati.

“I’m a hometown girl all the way around,” she said.

Bill was born in New Jersey, but the family moved back to Delhi. He attended St. Dominic School and Oak Hills High School before heading to Ohio State. One of seven kids, he grew up only a mile or two from Jenny, but that’s not how they met.

“We like to joke and say we met on the Swiss Alps, but we didn’t – we met at Flanagan’s, a bar that used to be on Second Street,” Jenny said.

Bill tapped Jenny on the shoulder and asked, “Don’t I know you?” Jenny laughed, thinking it was a line. As it turned out, Bill and her brother were in the same fraternity at Ohio State. They were married while Jenny was still in college and had daughter Annie, 30, two years later. After Sam, they had two more children: Olivia, 22, and Mac, 20.

While Jenny stayed home with the children, Bill embarked on a highly successful career. Early on, he went to work for Power Distribution Services, which rebuilt circuit breakers for the power industry. His father and one of his brothers had started it. When his father died in 1990, Bill took over the company, which was doing $3 million a year in sales at that point. He was 29.

“I learned some fundamentals that have helped me ever since. Like there’s no substitute for getting there early and leading by example,” he said. Also contributing to his success: listening, a skill he views as so important it should be taught in schools.

Jenny points to Bill’s ability to multitask and the fact that “his mind is always moving a million miles a minute.”

In eight years, he grew the company to $28 million in annual revenue before selling it.

“The best thing about it was I was able to give my mom a check that gave her financial freedom she’d never had,” he said.

Three years later, he started CE Power, an engineering services company that provides staffing and project management to power companies. By 2015, he’d grown the company to $45 million in revenue and sold it to private equity. He still has an ownership interest and serves on the board of what’s now a $200 million company.

Building two companies and raising four children is undoubtedly a lot of hard work, but the McCloys had a good time in the process.

“My older daughter said to me not too long ago, ‘Mom, I think it’s really cool that you guys make each other laugh,’ ” Jenny said.

The Liberty Township and Jupiter, Florida, couple shares a love of wine and golf, their Catholic faith (“It’s been a big part of what we do and why we do it,” Bill said), and of course, their dedication to their family.

“They have been role models of patience and vision as parents,” said Mason. “As a person who runs a parenting center, I have great appreciation for parents like Bill and Jenny McCloy.” He notes that Bill went the next step to help other parents by setting up Beech Acres parenting programs at his company, CE Power.

Of course, the McCloys have also kept their philanthropic focus. Other organizations they’ve supported include DePaul Cristo Rey High School, Boys & Girls Club of West Chester/Liberty, St. Joseph’s Home, and the Christ Hospital Foundation. Bill is on the alumni board of Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business and is a past board president of Maketewah Country Club, where he led efforts to adopt a class at Bond Hill School.

After all, their philanthropy is irrevocably tied to their family.

“What Sam has done for us was made us aware,” Bill said. “What we’d like to do for others is bring awareness of what our community does and can do for those who are less able, the underserved … If we could do anything, it’s flip a wand and make people be more understanding.” Sam “gave us a bigger purpose,” Jenny said. “We feel very blessed that we’re able to do what we do.”

While the McCloys are humble about what they’ve done, those who know them describe the real impact their contributions have.

“They try in every way they can to make Cincinnati the very best that it can be,” Zenk Nuseibeh said.

According to Mason, “It’s their heart, their passion and their perseverance.

“They just epitomize what a philanthropist is.”