Young professionals in the corporate world shouldn’t get to have all the fun — or the only professional development opportunities. 

Yet, just a few years ago, that’s what young Des Moines professionals in the nonprofit sector were seeing: a lack of local development opportunities, and very few chances for the nonprofits to mingle between subsectors like the arts, education, food security and other issues tackled in Central Iowa.

Members of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) Des Moines chapter decided they could change that. 

“We decided to have a conference, but in true young professional nonprofit style. We didn’t want to be Powerpoints and lectures,” said Joe Sorenson, a former YNPN board chair and vice president of affiliate relations at the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines. 

Enter Non-Con, which enters its sixth year greeting nonprofit professionals to the one-day conference on Feb. 1. Sorenson is a co-chair of Non-Con along with Kristin Huinker, the community development director at Youth Emergency Services & Shelters of Iowa. Huinker is finishing her sixth and last year as a YNPN board member. 

Non-Con 2019 will be held at the Grand View University Student Center, and although it is organized by YNPN, the conference draws from individuals from college-age to those with more than 25 years of professional experience, Sorenson said. The event typically draws professionals from Iowa, but chapters from national organizations such as the American Cancer Society have sent regional staff members. Corporations have sent employees who represent charitable giving or volunteer opportunities within those companies.

In the first year, YNPN organizers went big, hosting at the Des Moines Social Club and mandating that all presentations had to be led through some sort of art medium for participants — such as learning how to mind-map or an introduction to yoga and meditation. 

The first conference even had an improv session — acting out difficult conversations on organizational ethics, Huinker said. 

“The whole point of Non-Con is that it’s a nontraditional, nonprofit conference,” Huinker said. “Over the years, we’ve definitely focused on more of the macro level of conversations and discussions.” 

In other words, Non-Con isn’t necessarily providing the how-to on grant writing or social media management. 

“Non-Con’s been a way for professionals to step away from the day-to-day and look at [the] big picture of what’s affecting our sector,” Sorenson said. 

Two years ago, Non-Con focused on diversity and inclusion; last year’s conference focused on disruption, following a divisive political landscape for nonprofits. This year, attendees can expect sessions that navigate change management, Huinker said, both from the organization’s perspective and from the perspective of individual nonprofit professionals. 

“We’re recognizing that the nonprofit sector is not immune from this whole talent retention and recruitment piece,” Sorenson said. “We want to equip our members [to] stay inspired, driven to be in the sector. … We’re trying to help employers give people the tools to refresh themselves, instead of moving on to the next best thing or maybe leaving the sector all together.” 

“We’re losing bright, bright talent in our sector in the nonprofits to those in the corporate world, because maybe they pay better, maybe their benefits are better — some of those intangibles that our sector can’t necessarily fill,” Huinker said. 

“What we can fill is how that mission speaks to you, and you can find your purpose,” she added. “I think that’s one of the things that YNPN Des Moines is really good at — helping people realize that this work is worth doing, and we can help you with the tools that you need to do your job.”

YNPN Des Moines has been an active affiliate of YNPN since 2013, with about 120 members on average. Updates on the chapter’s monthly events can be found on Facebook: @ynpnDesMoines.