1. What is your business name?
Sharp & Sweet. But we are actually two separate agencies. Cheryl Baldwin owns Sweet Boo Design and Laura Morse owns Sharp 11. Together we call ourselves Sharp & Sweet. But you might also say the name describes our personalities! Our project collaboration became so close over the years it made sense to package our work together. We recommend each other for almost every job we get into, so promoting ourselves as a team was just a natural step forward.
2. What do you (or your business) specialize in?
Sharp & Sweet is all about nonprofit branding that elevates every aspect of your mission. To work with a brand is to take on an organization’s reason for existence. Your brand is so much more than a logo. Your brand is your cause, your culture, and your connection to donors. If it doesn’t hold meaning for the people experiencing it, your mission and everything you do is totally lost. Sharp & Sweet makes your brand SPEAK. And talk louder and above the rest, we might add. And we can do that in one hundred different ways.
3. How did you get started in consulting?
Cheryl has been on her own for a long time now as a graphic designer, evolving into her own business when she took over a freelance magazine gig and then ran a business teaching children’s art classes. She did a corporate stint for a while but loved being an entrepreneur more. Cheryl also discovered a passion for furthering the work of the charitable sector, and most of her work now is with nonprofits.
Laura’s prior career was in nonprofit management, communications, and development for museums, underserved communities, and education. She brought her insider info and love for causes to create Sharp 11, a communications and strategy studio for nonprofits. Laura wants to help revolutionize the way causes share their message and engage their staff and the public.
4. What are you really good at?
Sharp & Sweet is a cool combo. We start work with our clients by totally immersing ourselves in their story. We’re really good at listening so we can truly feel a part of the cause and understand its deepest needs. This knowledge lives in us and guides our entire strategy throughout the project. If we don’t think we can feel a connection to the cause, we won’t take on the work. It’s that personal to us.
5. What is your firm really good at?
We’re really good at being bold and delivering something really special. We come out swinging. Our goal is to cut through clutter, noise, and tired old ideas to make your message totally stand out from the rest. This can be scary for clients, even if they think they want it. We know it takes time to change course or strike a new tone, but we know how to get you there. It’s a journey and it’s not for the faint. If you really want to change the world, you better step up and be big, even if you have two staff people and a budget under $250k. Donors don’t respond to weakness. They want solutions, change, and a meaningful cause to support.
6. What do you do better than your rivals?
Sharp & Sweet is always cooking some secret sauce. There may only be two of us, but we bring the Total Package. We are full brand architects who understand fundraising.
We are amazing at bringing out simplicity, authenticity, and humanizing your message so you attract the people who will love and support your work. The rest of the crowd doesn’t matter. Our work is painstakingly careful in the message: no BS, never jargon-y, always human and relatable.
We are uber brain-stormers. There’s a real symbiotic flow to how we generate ideas and create. We absolutely push each other to be better with every piece we work on. We elevate each other’s work so we can be our very best for our clients.
And there’s a hell of a lot of seriousness and fun going on around here that our clients hop right into and enjoy.
5. Who are some of your clients?
Wow, do we love us some awesome change-makers. We are overwhelmed by the good work these agencies do and are proud to be a small part of it: Community Partners, Dress for Success Palm Beaches, Alpert Jewish Family Service, Resource Depot, Center for Child Counseling, Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County, YMCA of South Palm Beach County, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies of Palm Beach County, HomeSafe, Palm Beach County Food Bank, and even Nonprofits First.
6. What’s the most unique aspect of what you do?
Our method employs mission-driven design and we pour the secret sauce all over it. We’re not going to tell you what that is here. You have to call us. We don’t know anyone else around in design and communications who also knows fundraising strategy and how to appeal to donors. That’s pretty crucial, right? We are also rule-breakers when necessary. We create ways for causes to find freedom to be what they were meant to be.
7. Who inspires you?
Being Boss (Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson), RBG, Michelle&BarackForever, Brene Brown, Beyonce, Maya Angelou
8. What cause or mission is close to your heart?
Indulge us with several, please: Suicide Prevention Awareness, Women’s Issues, Rescue Animals, Racial Equity, Education, Underserved Communities, Mental Health, World Peace, Arts & Humanities, the Environment
9. What is your connection to the nonprofit community?
Beyond our work with clients, our current volunteerism belongs to Leadership Palm Beach County, the Mental Health Association, the Women’s Foundation of Florida, and St. George’s Center.
10. How can organizations best reach you?
Offering coffee or food usually works best.
Check us out at Sharp11.org and SweetBooDesign.com
Email or call either of us to talk about what we can do for you.
Laura: 561.531.3511 and laura@sharp11.org
Cheryl: 561.578.7019 and cheryl@sweetboodesign.com
Thanks for taking the time to learn about us!
