1985
The SEEP Network began as The Small Enterprise Evaluation Project (SEEP), bringing together 25 organizations to develop an alternative, practitioner-focused approach to evaluating small business projects for private development organizations.
1987
The SEEP Project published Monitoring & Evaluating Small Business Projects: A-Step-by-Step Guide for Private Development Organizations, which sold more than 7,000 copies, and which SEEP translated into three languages. The successful completion and dissemination of the Step-by-Step Guide prompted the transformation of The SEEP Project into The SEEP Network with the mission of serving “as a thought leader and learning center for North American NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] around issues related to small enterprise development.”
1989
The SEEP Network’s Financial Services Working Group produced SEEP’s first large training event around credit management. SEEP initiated its first Annual General Meeting (AGM), which first focused solely on members but eventually expanded to embrace field partners and others.
1993
The SEEP/Catholic Relief Services partnership resulted in the production of An Institutional Guide for Enterprise Development Organizations.
The Tools and Techniques Workshop developed into an international program that trained more than 160 field participants in management information systems, financial projection for credit programs, and subsector analysis.
1994
The first International Village Banking Conference resulted in Village Banking: State of Practice, one of SEEP’s hallmark publications.
1995
The Planning Grant Initiative awarded grants to 13 member institutions to address organization expansion issues in the field and resulted in the Moving Forward books published by The SEEP Network.
Previously operating through host organizations such as PACT and CARE, The SEEP Network incorporated as a nonprofit organization.
1997
SEEP launched the Network Development Services (NDS) program to strengthen the capacity of country and regional networks to support microenterprise institutions.
2001
SEEP launched the Practitioner Learning Program (PLP) to foster industry learning through targeted grants in microfinance and private sector-led enterprise development.
2005
SEEP Snapshot 2005 (Twenty Years of SEEP)