SEM began in 2004 as a pilot program to test the effectiveness of microfinance lending in the rural subsistence farming village of Louly Ngogom, Senegal. At the time, John Fay was performing an economic assessment of the Louly Ngogom community while volunteering for the Senegalese nonprofit CRESP through a John Nixon Fellowship from Cornell University's Johnson School. Every family interviewed for the survey spoke of their desire to grow the local cash crop of peanuts, but could not afford to purchase the needed seeds. From this information, it became apparent that the community was not engaged in income-producing activities because of a lack of opportunity, not a lack of motivation or ability. As a result, John worked with CRESP to design the Louly Microfinance Project, which provided a group of fifteen families in Louly Ngogom with a loan of thirty dollars each to purchase peanut seeds. The group fully repaid these loans with interest, earning a profit from the peanut crop which was used for school fees, food, and reinvestment in other income-generating activities.  

Over the next two years, the project began providing loans in two more villages, Nder and Carabane, as well as extending its lending to all fifty households of Louly Ngogom. Each of these loans has been fully repaid with interest and each village has continued to take out new SEM loans for additional income-generating activities.

As a result of the 100% repayment rate and the strong demand throughout Senegal for this type of microfinance, in early 2006 John Fay partnered with Nan Guslander, Ismael Diallo and Julia Blue to move the project beyond the pilot phase, founding the Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund, or SEM. This development has allowed SEM to make microfinance loans available to groups in all thirty-eight member villages of the Global Ecovillage Network in Senegal. SEM's board of directors and international network of volunteers provide technical expertise, fundraising, ensure complete transparency, and develop partnerships with other microfinance operations such as Kiva. SEM's in-country management team ensures effective day-to-day administration of the lending program through its local expertise and dedicated staff.

SEM is a new and innovative organization that will continue to build a solid record of providing opportunity to those motivated to pull themselves out of poverty.