We work with nonprofits and small organizations that are stuck, burned by a previous engagement, or simply trying to do more with less. Hands-on implementation, sector expertise, and outcomes you can actually measure.
Enterprise
Interim Housing
Interim Housing
Bay Area Collaborative
Board Member
Startup Advisory
Health Research
We analyzed 100+ data sources across 15+ online platforms to understand exactly where AI is failing SMEs and nonprofits. The findings are striking: widespread adoption, rare impact. This isn't a technology problem. It's an implementation, trust, and sector-knowledge problem.
Data synthesized from MIT/Fortune, Gartner, BCG, TechSoup/Tapp Network, BDO, Bridgespan Group, Harvard Business Review, and community research across 15+ platforms. Read the full report →
Most AI consulting failures come down to the same pattern. Here's what we do instead.
50 slides, nicely designed, full of frameworks you've seen before. Nobody knows what to do with it on Monday morning.
Deployed platforms, documented processes, trained staff, and measurement in place. Things that are running when we leave.
One-size-fits-all frameworks applied regardless of sector, team size, data maturity, or organizational culture.
We work in housing, homelessness response, nonprofits, and mission-driven SMEs. We know the constraints, the stakeholders, the funding dynamics.
Day rates with scope creep built in. The quoted price is 20–40% of what you'll actually pay. No accountability for whether it works.
You know the cost before we start. Fees are tied to reaching defined milestones, not hours billed. We share the risk.
No documentation, no knowledge transfer, no training. Every small change requires re-engagement and another invoice.
Every engagement includes documentation, training, and a 90-day handoff so the organization can run and extend what we built.
Six offerings built around the most common failure modes we identified in our research — each designed to deliver measurable outcomes within a defined timeframe.
A 30-day diagnostic that maps your data landscape, current tools, staff capacity, and AI readiness. You get a plain-language report and a prioritized action plan — not a theory, a roadmap.
Entry point · 30 daysA ready-to-adopt, organization-specific AI policy that satisfies board questions, funder requirements, and staff concerns. We write it with you, not for you — so it actually gets used.
Nonprofit-focused · 2–3 weeksYou've got a pilot that worked, or a problem that needs solving. We take it from proof-of-concept to production in 90 days — fixed scope, fixed price, measurable outcome at the end.
Core offering · 90 daysFor organizations coordinating across multiple partners, funders, or collaboratives — we design and implement the shared data infrastructure, platforms, and workflows that make coordination actually work.
Multi-org · Custom scopeA subsidized track for nonprofits under $5M budget — covering AI strategy, tool selection, implementation, governance, and staff training. Designed to be grant-fundable from the start.
Nonprofit track · Grant-eligibleIf you've already invested in AI but can't answer "is it working?" — we establish the baseline metrics, attribution framework, and reporting dashboard that answers that question for boards, funders, and investors.
Standalone · 3–4 weeksA coalition of 200+ organizations — nonprofits, government agencies, funders, and service providers — needed shared infrastructure to coordinate a regional homelessness response strategy. The data lived in silos, the stakeholder relationships lived in one person's inbox, and every attempt at shared reporting had stalled.
We built from the data foundation up: audited 478 contacts across Gmail and disconnected systems, designed a CRM architecture, and deployed a stakeholder intelligence platform — with editorial content, meeting infrastructure, and a newsletter strategy reaching the full network.
Housing · Nonprofit · Civic TechDanu Strategy was founded because the organizations that most need AI to work — the ones with the smallest margins for error and the biggest stakes — are the ones being consistently failed by the consulting industry.
Too many engagements end with a polished deck and an empty calendar. The consultant has moved on; the platform isn't running; the staff never changed how they work. We built Danu Strategy to be the antidote to that pattern.
Our work is grounded in direct experience inside mission-driven organizations — building technology at scale at Meta Reality Labs, scaling interim housing solutions at DignityMoves, co-founding ShelterSpace, and currently serving as Strategic Advisor to Beyond Homeless, a Bay Area nonprofit coordinating regional homelessness response across 200+ organizations.
We work in San Francisco and Ireland, serving organizations across the US, UK, and Ireland.
We're paid when things work, not when things are delivered.
We know housing, homelessness, and mission-driven org constraints deeply.
We leave every organization more capable than we found it.
Fixed scope. No hidden costs. No scope creep by design.
Our first report synthesizes 100+ data points from Reddit, G2, Capterra, LinkedIn, NTEN, TechSoup, Harvard Business Review, and our own advisory work — to document exactly where AI is failing nonprofits and SMEs, and what the path forward looks like.
Read the researchWe work with a small number of organizations at a time. If you're a nonprofit or SME navigating AI adoption, a funder exploring technology capacity-building, or an organization that has been burned by a previous AI engagement — we'd like to hear from you.
No sales call. No deck. A real conversation about what you're working on and whether we're the right fit.