Leaders of youth intervention programs provide a significant social service by redirecting at-risk youth onto a productive path. The standards for youth-serving organizations are inconsistent from 1 organization to another across a wide range of youth-worker training certification programs in the United States. A single-case study was conducted to explore the strategies that 3 leaders of a nonprofit organization located in Minnesota, use to select, collect, and analyze data to assess the effectiveness of training certification programs for youth workers. The 2017-2018 Baldrige Excellence Framework provided the structure for a systems-based evaluation of the client organization; Freeman's stakeholder theory was the conceptual lens for the study. Data were collected from conducting semistructured interviews, reviewing the participating organization's internal documents and performance outcomes, and analyzing open-source resources. Through thematic analysis, 4 key themes emerged: (a) the social return on investment analysis and the overall cost savings by investing in and supporting youth programs, (b) the opportunity to focus research on certification for youth workers, (c) the value of providing training for youth workers, and (d) the opportunity to provide a platform for the youth to share success stories with their community. Specific recommendations stemming from the research findings were to create a state or national recognition standard for youth-worker certifications and to make youth work a paid profession. Implementation of these recommendations may result in positive social change by improving the lives and trajectories of youth.

According to scholars and organizations that focus on the performance of organizations in the nonprofit sector, retaining loyal and engaged donors has been a critical component of sustainability. Through the conceptual lens of single- and double-loop learning and organizational communications theory, this single-case study explored donor communication strategies used by 3 executive-level leaders of a nonprofit organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Data collected from semistructured interviews, organizational documents, and Guidestar, an online information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies, were manually coded and thematically analyzed. Two key themes emerged: effective processes for donor communication strategy development and organizational learning strategy development. Strategy development may assist this Minneapolis company’s organizational leaders with improving retention of donors and participants in the company’s programs and services, increasing action plan completion rates, and integrating the lessons learned process during the development and implementation of communication strategies to increase donor retention. By bridging the gap between performance arts and social responsibility, this company’s leaders may engage both donors and participants, resulting in favorable retention rates. These findings have implications for positive social change. Nonprofit leaders’ models of effective communications strategies and processes to improve participant and donor engagement may ensure leaders’ ability to serve and improve their communities by engaging at-risk youth in programs designed to develop performance arts and leadership skills.