A family legacy once came with a ring of keys: one for the safe deposit box at the bank downtown, one for the file cabinet holding the deeds and trust papers, and one for the foundation office where the checkbook waited in the top drawer. The keys look different today, and 3W Philanthropic Ventures sees many families and charitable organizations that have lost track of who holds them.
Those keys are now passwords, verification codes sent to a single phone, administrator logins for donor databases and credentials for accounts that hold grant histories, royalty payments and years of private family correspondence. They often live in one person’s memory, a browser’s saved settings or a notebook tucked in a desk drawer. When that person retires, steps away or dies, a family can find itself locked out of its own history.
3W Philanthropic Ventures, a multidisciplinary advisory firm that helps families, founders, advisors and charitable organizations coordinate financial, legal and philanthropic decisions, views that risk as a planning issue rather than a technical one. The firm sees cybersecurity in legacy planning as a natural extension of the work families already do to protect their wealth and their mission, and it encourages clients to treat data privacy and digital continuity with the same seriousness they give trusts, succession plans and foundation bylaws.
“Families and foundations are holding more sensitive digital information than most realize — donor and beneficiary data, financial account access, family communications, and, increasingly, the digital assets themselves,” said Dan Bolsen, cofounder and chief executive officer of 3W Philanthropic Ventures. “A cybersecurity gap in any of these areas can affect a family’s or foundation’s reputation and the trust it depends on, not just its finances.”
Reputation is part of the risk, too. A foundation that suffers a breach loses more than money. Donors feel exposed, grantees worry about what else leaked and family members learn their private conversations may not be private anymore. Philanthropy runs on trust, and trust takes far longer to rebuild than a bank balance.
That reality shapes how the firm approaches philanthropic risk management. Its team places digital exposure in the same category as the legal and financial risks families already plan around.
“We think about this the way we think about legal or tax exposure: it belongs in the plan, not off to the side,” Bolsen said.
Digital Assets and the Changing Landscape of Wealth
Most families already accept that a leadership transition requires preparation. They name successor trustees, update signature authority at the bank and walk the next board chair through the foundation’s investment policy. Documented account access rarely makes that checklist.
The gap often hides in plain sight. For instance, a longtime executive director may have set up the grant portal a decade ago, while a family founder quietly manages the accounts behind the online business that funds the family’s annual giving. Somewhere down the hall, a trusted assistant might hold the only working login to years of board records. Everything runs smoothly until the day someone needs access, and by then the people who could have solved the problem may no longer be around to help.
3W Philanthropic Ventures sees the same pattern with digital assets, which the firm believes deserve a formal place in planning alongside real estate and securities.
“Digital assets are a real part of wealth — creative rights, royalty streams, equity in online businesses, sometimes the business itself — and families often don’t treat them as a formal planning category the way they would real property or securities,” Bolsen said. “That gap tends to surface only when someone needs access, and by then it may be too late to fix cleanly.”
The stakes rise when those assets support charitable work. Revenue from a founder’s brand or intellectual property frequently fuels a family’s philanthropy, so a locked account or an unclear ownership trail can quietly disrupt grants that communities count on. The firm treats that connection as part of philanthropic architecture, one of its core pillars.
“Proceeds or royalties from an online business or brand often fund the family’s charitable giving, so who controls or licenses that asset directly affects the giving strategy that depends on it,” Bolsen explained.
The firm’s answer centers on helping families get access documented, protected and transferable well before anyone needs it. That work ties directly into succession and continuity planning.
“That means coordinating with cybersecurity and technology professionals so access to accounts, digital assets and sensitive data is documented, protected and transferable when leadership changes, and building data-handling practices into a foundation’s governance rather than leaving them to whoever happens to be managing IT at the time,” Bolsen said.
Why Data Privacy Belongs in Foundation Governance
Technology has given families new ways to stay connected to their shared work. Relatives spread across states and countries can review grant proposals, vote on funding and read board materials without boarding a plane. 3W Philanthropic Ventures sees that shift as a real gift to family philanthropy, especially for younger generations.
“Technology has narrowed that gap: virtual board meetings, shared portals for reviewing grant proposals and secure document access let family members participate meaningfully without being in the room,” Bolsen said. “The opportunity is inclusion as much as convenience. Rising generations who might otherwise disengage from a foundation that felt inaccessible now have an easier way in.”
Every new doorway, however, needs a lock and a clear record of who holds the key. More participants, devices and shared documents widen the circle of sensitive information a foundation must protect. The firm believes that makes data privacy a matter of foundation governance, one that belongs with the board rather than with whoever set up the software.
Families face a quieter risk inside their own records. Many now digitize their history, and AI-assisted tools can turn years of board minutes and meeting notes into an archive the next generation can actually search. That archive often holds something that matters as much as any asset.
“One of the hardest things families lose in a transition isn’t the asset — it’s the reasoning behind past decisions: why a foundation chose to fund certain causes, why a trust was structured a certain way, or what conversation shaped a specific grant,” Bolsen said. “That knowledge usually lives in people’s memory, scattered emails and meeting notes no one revisits.”
Once that knowledge becomes a searchable digital record, it turns into one of the most sensitive files a family owns, full of candid conversations, private dynamics and the honest logic behind major financial decisions. Protecting it is part of protecting the legacy itself.
Why Coordination Matters More Than Cybersecurity Expertise
Families, board members and their advisors don’t need to become security engineers to get this right. 3W Philanthropic Ventures keeps its guidance strategic, helping clients spot real risks and bringing in qualified specialists to handle them. The same principle guides how the firm approaches newer kinds of wealth.
“We don’t think every advisor needs to become a deep expert in each category — that isn’t realistic or necessary,” Bolsen said. “What matters more is fluency: knowing enough about how these assets function to recognize when they raise a real planning question, and knowing when to bring in a specialist rather than treating an unfamiliar asset as a footnote.”
That approach defines how the firm works. 3W Philanthropic Ventures doesn’t replace a family’s attorneys, wealth managers or philanthropic advisors. It works alongside them as a coordinated platform, drawing on more than 100 years of combined experience across financial, legal and philanthropic disciplines.
Its three pillars function as one integrated framework, and 3W brings in cybersecurity and technology professionals when a plan calls for them.
“3W exists to help clients navigate the intersection of philanthropy, wealth, legal strategy, and long-term planning in a more integrated way,” Bolsen said. “Too often, these conversations happen in silos, even though the decisions themselves are deeply connected.”
The firm expects families to look for that kind of steady, connected attention in the years ahead.
“Families will expect ongoing, coordinated stewardship rather than a plan that sits untouched between life events — advisors who stay engaged as circumstances, assets and family composition change, not just when a document needs revising,” Bolsen said. “In short, the expectation shifts from having a plan to having a partner who keeps it aligned with a family’s life as it unfolds.”
The ring of keys still matters. It just looks different now. A family that plans for it gives the next generation more than access to accounts. It hands them a legacy they can actually open.