Abstract
The mission of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (NLA) is to educate, prepare, and certify professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations. Service learning, a teaching pedagogy combining formal instruction and community involvement, is promoted by the NLA as a best practice for student achievement of nonprofit competencies. However, students enrolled in nonprofit courses, including NLA students, often question whether there are benefits in service learning. Social Exchange theory posits that individuals are rational beings that weigh the rewards and costs for various alternatives and choose that which will offer the most profit. Social Exchange theory would lead us to believe that students seeking certification from NLA would perceive a profit from engaging in service learning with nonprofit organizations. This paper examines the responses of students seeking NLA certification and of students seeking only a minor in leadership and management for their evaluation of service learning. These were students enrolled in an online course that included a service learning project with a community nonprofit organization.
