The 10% Rule

Ten percent of the work, given.

A standing commitment to give ten percent of time, resources, or effort to causes that align with the work. The same craft as is charged elsewhere, given freely to the right missions.

Lives under Human, the pillar of warmth and community. Documented here so the work can be seen, shared, and built on.


How it works

Not charity. A way of working.

The 10% Rule isn’t a one-off donation. It’s a structural part of how Sharp Sighted operates — a deliberate share of capacity reserved for work that earns no invoice. Most often that looks like the same portrait, real-estate media, or short-film work the studio sells, given to a person or organization who couldn’t commission it.

The bar is the same as paid work. The craft doesn’t change. The intention does.


Where it shows up

The causes the work moves toward.

Not every cause is the right fit. The ones below are. Pitches outside this range are politely declined or referred elsewhere — the rule works best when it’s focused.

Legacy work for people in crisis

Make-A-Wish-style portraits and short films — especially for children — made to outlast the moment.

Autism and neurodivergence

Broadly framed. Sessions, portraits, and storytelling for organizations and individuals across the spectrum.

Mental health and recovery

PTSD support, addiction recovery, and the day-to-day work of staying alive and well.

Cancer battles

Any age, any type. Especially pediatric. Family portraits, treatment-journey stories, heirloom prints.

Foster youth and second-chance work

Youth aging out of care, reentry programs, restorative-justice work. Storytelling in service of the mission.

Disability rights, broadly

Physical, vision, hearing, access advocacy. Brand and event work for the organizations doing the work.

Photography education

Meetups, mentoring, the portable-printer-for-strangers loop. Passing the craft along.

Habitat for Humanity and affordable housing

Real estate media for the organizations that build homes for the people who need them.


The archive

The work, logged.

Every 10% engagement gets documented here — the partner, the work, the story. Not as a portfolio. As a record.

The archive is still warming up.

Entries are being moved into Studio. Each completed 10% engagement gets its own page once the partner sign-off lands.


Want this for your cause?

Reach out.

If you’re running an organization — or you know one — whose work lives in the range above, send a note. Capacity is finite; the right fit gets the time.

Stay Sharp. Stay Seen. Stay Human.