We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nadia Drake a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nadia, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

Our business was founded on a model of personal reparations, meaning that we believe it is our responsibility as white entrepreneurs to help restore the communities from which members of our race have historically and currently oppressed and exploited. To this end, we donate a varying percentage of profits on all products to various nonprofits and community organizations.

Each quarter, we select a nonprofit or community organization to benefit from our overall sales. This quarter, we are donating 20% of all profits to SEEDS 50314 whose mission is to provide knowledge of self through cultural empowerment, creative expression, and entrepreneurship for youth. In the past, we’ve supported a local food pantry network distributing fresh produce and other healthy foods to those facing food insecurity; a nonprofit providing equitable opportunities for our local public school district; and we’ve even sent direct support payments to the families of individuals lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to donating a percentage of our overall sales, we also have special product lines that give back to other nonprofits and community organizations. For example, one branch of our business supports trauma survivors. Through this, we sell wood plant stakes engraved with plant-related self-care sayings. In response to the ongoing attacks on abortion rights, profits from one of the plant stakes are now donated to a national abortion access fund for survivors of gender-based violence.

Since the start of our business in 2019, we’ve donated just over $14,000 to nonprofits and community organizations. As our business expands, we hope to grow this amount in the future.

Nadia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

One of the most unique things about our business model is that we are a family-owned collective of entrepreneurs who work together to bring all of our products to life. Our team includes myself; my sister, Natasha; and our dad, Greg. Together, we are known as Sugar Valley Collective. We offer art prints, cards, apparel, wood goods, & more, all of which are handmade, unique, and created with an eye toward spreading love and justice. We strive to be as eco-conscious as possible, with many of our goods made from upcycled, recycled, salvaged, or other sustainable materials.

Under the Sugar Valley Collective, we operate three integrated lines of products:
• Me (Nadia): Sugar Valley Apothecary is educator-owned and focuses on paper goods and clothing promoting social justice. I am a self-taught graphic artist and primary owner of Sugar Valley Collective. I create both original and custom cards, art prints, invitations, clothes, and more.
• Natasha: Survivors Apothecary is owned by a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault and focuses on offering goods that support trauma survivors on their healing journeys. Natasha both creates her own products and collaborates with other survivors and small businesses on items ranging from clothing with empowering messages to plant-based essential oils and sprays, healing candles, and handmade artwork.
• Greg: Ducks Wood & Things showcases Greg’s talent for woodworking, antique restoration, and salvaged art. Products range from one-of-a-kind tables and benches made from wood salvaged in the wake of a local natural disaster to snarky “motivational” signs, wooden holiday décor, and more.

Our business is family-owned, operated, and inspired. I first started what was then known as Sugar Valley Stationery & Prints by teaching myself graphic design as a way to feel close to my uncle, who tragically passed too early in life and was a graphic designer himself. I first started making custom invitations for friends and family. With the encouragement of my older sister, Natasha, I launched a business showcasing my own art and designs. This business gradually grew to include clothing and other small gift items. In 2022, Natasha and our father, Greg, also launched their own respective product lines. With these additions, the business rebranded as Sugar Valley Collective.

As Sugar Valley Collective, we sell our goods together at local in-person pop-up events and online through both Etsy and our own website, www.sugarvalleycollective.com.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first launched Sugar Valley Stationery & Prints, I wasn’t very targeted in my mission or the products I made. I tried to make art that appealed to everyone and wasn’t very mindful of how I marketed herself at pop-up shows or online.

One of the most important pieces of business advice my sister, Natasha received when launching her own consulting firm was to lean into her niche. With this advice, she built a successful consulting practice that is explicitly focused on promoting justice and equity through philanthropy. With coaching from Natasha, I pushed Sugar Valley’s business model to align more closely with our own beliefs and values. While this has definitely excluded our business from certain markets, being more direct about our ethics has allowed us to better find “our customers” and to generate enough profit that we’re able to make a real and lasting impact in our communities.

We are now very intentional about the messaging in our products, striving to be as inclusive as possible with both our words and our images. We are also unapologetically bold in our statements and known to use a fun curse word or two. We truly believe that mutual aid is the best way to support each other as human beings, and we are grateful to have built a platform that allows us to spread messages of social justice while also raising critical funds for our neighbors and communities.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We are actually sisters! Natasha is the oldest and I (Nadia) am the youngest. Together, we work with our dad, Greg, on many of our products and setup/displays for our pop-up events (with critical support from our mom, aunt, cousins, boyfriend, and more!)

In addition to our love for each other as sisters, we also share a mutual commitment to social justice. I am an educator in the local public school district as a Transformational Leadership Coach where I support educators in their goals both academically and personally through a lens of justice and equity. Natasha owns a consulting business working with nonprofits and government agencies to promote justice and equity through philanthropy. Working together through the Sugar Valley Collective allows us an outlet for both our creativity and our desire to make real and lasting change in our communities. Our products reflect our lived experiences as well, with many of my products focused on teachers and Natasha’s on trauma survivors.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sugarvalleycollective.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugarvalleycollective/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sugarvalleycollective
• Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SValleyApothecary

Image Credits
We took all of these photos or created mockups of products