Tyler Clark’s love of nonprofits began at an early age and hasn’t changed since.
Clark, the president and CEO of the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of NWA, first started working with nonprofits as a high school student, working with the Jones Center for Families in Springdale. He continued through college and then went to work at Credit Counseling of Arkansas.
Clark took over at the Single Parent Scholarship Fund in 2017.
“In short, I don’t think I necessarily pursued this career; it pursued me,” Clark said. “Helping people fills my cup. Hopefully, my cup spills over and helps fill others’ cups.”
The organization Clark runs is the result of a merger in 2021 between the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Benton County and the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Northwest Arkansas. The merger was brought about, in part, because of the COVID-19 pandemic; the fund now serves Benton, Washington, Carroll and Madison counties.
“With the help of an excellent planning committee, board members, and staff, we completed a two-agency merger in 2021,” Clark said. “Starting in March 2020, during COVID-19, we began providing the best opportunities to our recipients via Zoom. We are now seeing the results of our hard work, with the last two semesters breaking records for the number of applicants, upwards of a 20% increase.”
In 2023, the combined fund provided more than $940,000 in scholarships to 231 recipients. Clark hopes and expects to see the fund continue to grow.
“Growth within our organization is inevitable,” Clark said. “As the need grows, we plan to expand services such as our behavioral health program and additional scholarship-supportive services.”
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