TCI was founded by Jerry Wilger - a jet trader, land developer and all around entrepreneur - who created TCI to manage a powerful project that ultimately influenced a President to change the way the federal government viewed faith-based programs and recognize them as worthy of support.  The project was called The InnerChange Freedom Initiative and it was the first faith-based program initiated by then Governor George Bush in partnership with Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries.  The program separated a group of 300 inmate volunteers from the rest of their Sugarland, Texas prison into a prison unit of their own in which the inmates - each multiply convicted of serious crimes from theft to murder - themselves elected inmate leaders who governed the behavior and discipleship of their fellow inmates.  They were supported by volunteers from the surrounding communities who helped the inmates' transition from prison life to successful life on the outside.  Each InnerChange inmate left prison with a job, a church membership, and a mentor.  The recidivism rate dropped from 40 percent in the general population to 8 percent for the InnerChange inmates validated by a University of Pennsylvania study.  This program was the fundamental experience that led President George Bush to introduce to the nation the concept of faith-based initiatives and to establish an office in each federal agency and in the White House to support them.  TCI went on to replicate similar initiatives in Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota.

As his involvement in the InnerChange experience was winding down and Prison Fellowship absorbed the work internally, Jerry Wilger sought, before his retirement, to broaden the work of TCI into areas of fund development to support various Christian organizations which had reached their natural ceiling of support and needed help breaking through to the next level.  Jerry recruited two key players from his association with Prison Fellowship.  The first was John Dawson who was Chuck Colson's chief of staff and a vice-president at Prison Fellowship.  John had revolutionized the event design and local fund raising coordination at the ministry to produce over 100 events in five years which raised in excess of $20 million.  Jerry and John then recruited a second Prison Fellowship VP, Jodi Gemma, who as head of direct marketing for the ministry had lifted mail revenue from $15 million to $30 million per year, all the while trimming proportional costs.   Ms. Gemma learned her craft originally with Jerry Falwell and his affiliated organizations.   Dawson and Gemma, now the owners of TCI, with a team of six associates and affiliates, have served over 55 mission-oriented organizations, including their former employer, Prison Fellowship with whom they have maintained a close professional relationship and mutual esteem.  Other clients have included Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade, Moody Bible Institute, Prison Fellowship International, Young Life and Child Evangelism Fellowship, to name a few of the better known.  TCI can now offer the full range of fund-raising support tailored to any organization's particular needs.