By Jay Kt
The financial, legal, and philanthropic decisions facing today’s families, founders, advisors, and charitable organizations are more complex than ever. Navigating that complexity often means moving across multiple often-siloed disciplines, evolving regulations, and disconnected advisory conversations, each one adding friction to decisions that are already consequential. The people and organizations managing these challenges deserve a more thoughtful and unified experience.
This is precisely the challenge that 3W Philanthropic Ventures was created to address. 3W Philanthropic Ventures is a multidisciplinary advisory firm that simplifies the complex financial, legal, and philanthropic decisions of its clients, be they families, founders, organizations, or individuals, into a streamlined process in one place. With more than 100 years of combined experience, the 3W team delivers practical, forward-thinking guidance that’s grounded in real-world execution.
“At its core, 3W was founded on the idea that important decisions should not feel overwhelming,” says cofounder Dan Bolsen. “They should feel well-supported, well-structured, and aligned with what matters most to the people and organizations we serve.”
A Practical Mission
3W Philanthropic Ventures was founded to solve a specific problem for a specific set of clients. The firm was founded in response to a growing need for greater clarity, coordination, and confidence in moments when financial, legal, and philanthropic decisions become especially complex. The inspiration behind 3W was the belief that clients deserve more thoughtful and unified experiences when making those decisions.
“We saw an opportunity to build a firm that brings together multidisciplinary expertise in a way that is practical, high-touch, and deeply relationship-driven,” Bolsen explains. “Rather than adding more complexity, we wanted to create a model that simplifies it, one that helps clients move forward with a clearer understanding of their options, stronger infrastructure, and trusted guidance.”
The mission of 3W Philanthropic Ventures is to simplify complex financial, legal, and philanthropic decisions by providing integrated, multidisciplinary guidance that helps clients move forward with clarity and confidence. That mission doesn’t only serve big, mission-driven companies and established charitable organizations; 3W serves individuals, families, founders, advisors, and charitable organizations that need more than just fragmented advice. The goal is to help clients make well-informed decisions, build durable structures, and align their resources and goals strategically, responsibly, and sustainably. Done properly, 3W’s services are designed to enable long-term positive impact, whether it’s helping a family establish robust philanthropic infrastructure or supporting a foundation’s effective governance.
“We believe that when complexity is reduced and trust is strengthened, people and organizations are better positioned to lead, give, and grow with purpose,” Bolsen says. “Our defining moment to date has been the disciplined choice to build with intention from the outset: the right leadership, the right values, the right partnerships, and the right foundation for long-term impact.”
A Unique Operational Paradigm
From its founding, 3W was intended to be different from other advisory businesses. Cofounder and chief executive officer Dan Bolsen set out with his team to build a multidisciplinary venture with a clear point of view and process. The result is that, rather than operating as a traditional consulting firm or wealth manager, 3W Philanthropic Ventures functions as a coordinated business-to-business platform that bridges multiple disciplines into a unified advisory framework. Translating such a sophisticated and interwoven concept into a clear model that clients can quickly understand and trust is difficult, but far from impossible.
“Our work is intentionally cross-functional,” Bolsen explains. “That is one of our strengths, but it also requires discipline in how we communicate our value. We’re having to be very thoughtful about articulating who we serve, how our model works, and what makes our approach distinct.”
The firm’s tagline makes the form of its function clear: “3W exists to make complex financial conversations simple via access to infrastructure.” When clients work with 3W, they no longer have to serve as the connective tissue between their legal, financial, philanthropic, and governance advisors. 3W coordinates across that team, helping ensure all the pieces are aligned and that clients have access to the infrastructure to act on them. The team at 3W has expertise across consulting, legal strategy, wealth management, governance, and philanthropy, and thus is able to see the full picture, all at once, and give clients objective guidance.
“The advisory landscape has no shortage of participants,” explains Bolsen. “What remains rare is genuine integration, a coordinated platform that brings legal, financial, and philanthropic expertise together in a way that is practical, high-touch, and built around each client’s goals.”
Bolstering Philanthropy Through Infrastructure and Education
The integrated nature of 3W Philanthropic Ventures is a novel model in the advisory landscape and requires constant investment in both education and infrastructure, the latter of which is a key aspect of 3W’s unique offering to clients. The fields of philanthropy, wealth planning, legal strategy, and governance are all constantly evolving, with changes in tax law, shifts in charitable giving, and developments in technology all affecting clients’ decisions and needs. For 3W, infrastructure is not behind-the-scenes support; it is central to the client experience, helping ensure that guidance is coordinated, consistent, and responsive as clients’ needs evolve.
“For 3W, staying ahead in the market is less about chasing trends and more about continuing to refine and deepen what makes us distinctively valuable,” Bolsen says. “Our team members maintain strong connections within the legal, financial, and philanthropic communities through professional networks, continuing education, and regular conversations with peers and advisors who are working through similar challenges.”
This commitment to refinement and growth positions 3W well for the trends shaping the broader advisory and philanthropic landscape today. Donors and leaders are growing more sophisticated, with clients asking sharper questions about impact, governance, and long-term strategy, which sets a higher bar of expected performance for the team. Clients want to understand not just what a given structure does, but whether it’s the right structure for their goals. Paired with the increasing overlap between wealth planning and philanthropy as a whole, 3W’s integrated model has been validated time and time again, and its clients reap the rewards.
“For 3W, success means combining excellence with integrity and growing in a way that is disciplined, sustainable, and helpful to the people and organizations we serve,” says Bolsen. “If clients feel better equipped to make important decisions, if organizations are stronger because of the structures and strategies we helped shape, and if our work creates lasting value beyond a single engagement, we consider that meaningful success.”
