Who develops TntConnect, and what is the background of this software?

Troy Wolbrink — Tue, 22 May 2018 15:02:18 GMT

Current revision posted to Frequently Asked Questions by Troy Wolbrink on 5/22/2018 3:02:18 PM

Who develops TntMPDTntConnect, and what is the background of this software?

I , (Troy Wolbrink, ) joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1996. Starting with the Jesus Film Master Studio, my assignment was to help develop the software they used to record, edit and mix new language versions of the Jesus Film. As a learning project I was encouraged by my team leader to consider developing an application that can help me stay organized as I work on MPD. I was also interested in doing this as a hobby, since I was unsatisfied with any of the existing software I had already tried. So this learning project became a hobby.

A few years later in 1999, Campus Crusade began making donation data available online. Up to this point, I was manually entering my donation information into TntMPD every month when the paper report came in the mail. It was worth it to do all this typing, because TntMPD would help me track my pledges and stay on top of thanking my partners. But once this donation data was available online, I quickly adapted TntMPD to be able to download this information directly into the program because I wanted to avoid all the typing each month. Once I realized I could get all the benefit of tracking my pledges without all the work, it became clear to me that this program could really help other staff.

For another year I worked on TntMPD so that it would be easy for any staff to install and begin using it. My fear was that if it wasn't user friendly, I'd be bogged down with technical support. My wife, Tammy, was my usability tester. She's not a technical person, so I'd work on different features of the software until she was able to perform certain tasks without my help, such as mail merge, scheduling tasks or checking for new gifts online. Once it passed Tammy's approval, it was ready and made available on our personal website. We told a friend about this software who was working as a MPD coach at Campus Crusade's New Staff Training Conference in January 2001. By the end of that month, about 100 new staff were already using the software!

I was surprised when the number of staff using the software continued to grow by about 100 each month. It's been encouraging to see the number of missionaries, as well as the number of organizations adopt TntMPD. TntMPD is in 8 languages now (as of 2009) and about 6,000 missionaries from 100 organizations use TntMPD! TntMPD gives each missionary about 6 more hours per month. That's about 36,000 additional hours each month for missionaries to be telling others about Jesus Christ!

Besides working on TntMPD, I also work on helping our international staff get up and running with TntMPD. One project I developed and now help maintain is DonorWise, which is a donation processing system for national ministries. Another project is called TntMPD.DataServer which brings a "Staff Services"-like website to national ministries, along with the ability for the national staff to be able to download their local donations into TntMPD. Another project is called TntTranslator which now allows a volunteer to translate TntMPD, the help manual, the technical support website and more ... and this can even be done online!

TntMPD is still maintained by me as its sole software developer

In 2014, although there is a growing virtual team of others who have really helped TntWare separated from Cru and became an independent ministry. TntMPD was renamed to free up my time so that I can focus on what I do bestTntConnect and TntMPD.DataServer was renamed to DonorHub. I serve DonorHub became a cloud "software as a full time staff member with the Global Technology Office of Campus Crusade for Christ. We provide leadership service". TntConnect continues to the thrive, and ministry in organizations continue to enjoy the effective use of technology so that we, as a ministry, have more capacity DonorWise and DonorHub to build spiritual movements everywhereequip their staff on the field with the information and tools they need to fully fund their ministry.

Who develops TntMPD, and what is the background of this software?

Troy Wolbrink — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:44:34 GMT

Revision 1 posted to Frequently Asked Questions by Troy Wolbrink on 9/23/2009 4:44:34 PM

I, Troy Wolbrink, joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1996. Starting with the Jesus Film Master Studio, my assignment was to help develop the software they used to record, edit and mix new language versions of the Jesus Film. As a learning project I was encouraged by my team leader to consider developing an application that can help me stay organized as I work on MPD. I was also interested in doing this as a hobby, since I was unsatisfied with any of the existing software I had already tried. So this learning project became a hobby.

TntMPD is still maintained by me as its sole software developer, although there is a growing virtual team of others who have really helped to free up my time so that I can focus on what I do best. I serve as a full time staff member with the Global Technology Office of Campus Crusade for Christ. We provide leadership to the ministry in the effective use of technology so that we, as a ministry, have more capacity to build spiritual movements everywhere.