I have an interview soon for director of a nonprofit (centered on recovery from eating disorders) that serves an international membership. What can you tell me about relevent future trends?
Asked by
kevbo1 (
2018
)
August 7th, 2023
The org is centered on a twelve-step program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. We have accounting functions (no grants but lots of small contributions), publishing functions (copyright, print publication), member services functions (event planning, database management of 6000+ meetings worldwide, and customer service), and digital communications (website, social media, search ads), plus HR functions for 15 employees.
We are fairly idiosyncratic in our operations and culture. Many off-the-shelf technologies have to be turned inside-out and upside down to meet our needs, so, for example, we probably wouldn’t be as interested in generating content using AI because we necessarily rely on member testimonials, but we might use AI for images because we don’t want to show the faces of our members (or any real person’s face).
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4 Answers
Congratulations on getting an interview!
This type of work is important for many people, and I hope you are successful.
An executive director at a nonprofit has 2 jobs: to work with the board and to find funding. I would rehearse my strengths at working with groups and researching/obtaining grants and be ready to highlight that information at the interview.
I have personal experience in AA. I can tell you the steps work to start the healing, but other outside methods were what brought lasting recovery. Those were modalities like psychotherapy and meditation. I believe this organization is going to want to collaborate with other organizations that will benefit the clients.
To prepare for your interview, I suggest you look for data on who has eating disorders. I believe you will find that the majority are female, but you may be surprised that a large percentage are LGBTQ. You will want to talk about ways to reach these populations.
Good luck!
I’m no expert on eating disorders, but it would seem logical that if your group (or someone else) can address the causes of the disorders, then the recovery becomes somewhat easier. It takes both sides.
Trends: I think that the pandemic and its aftermath screwed up a lot of peoples’ minds, and we haven’t seen the full long term effect on mental health. So I would certainly comment that the pandemic and its aftermath will play some sort of a future role.
You might want to read up on the new weight loss treatments like Ozempic (off-label use) and Wegovy and their effect on eating disorders and the body positivity movement. Anecdotally two of my friend went on Ozempic for weight loss, went off it because it thoroughly messed up their digestvie systems and are still having issues weeks later. it is a hot topic in the weight lostt and eating disorder fields.
Congrats on getting the interview!
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