What happened to… Taimaka
by Noémie Bricard & Lea Buck
The Azurit Foundation was founded in 2021 and began its grantmaking in 2022. Since then, we’ve had the privilege of supporting a number of outstanding organizations. Starting now, we’ll occasionally share spotlights on some of our former grantee partners through our “What happened to…” series. In each post, we’ll look back at an early partnership: Who were they then? What made us choose them? And where do they stand now?
We’re starting with Taimaka, one of the very first organizations we funded.
A hidden gem in a newsletter
In 2021, Taimaka was mentioned in an IPA newsletter for their evidence-based approach to increase farmer incomes. We were quite at the beginning (just a few weeks old), interested in their approach and were looking to meet experts who could help us learn and shape our strategic focus. So, we reached out, expecting a well-established and funded organization. Instead, we learned that this “case study” was a young highly data-driven NGO – founded in 2019 and running on an annual budget of 60k at the time we met. They were more or less bootstrapping to cover their first RCT (yes, that was their priority – something many organizations only consider after many years). What stood out from day one was how their evidence focus shaped their operations (and not the often seen vice versa attempt of creating ex post evidence to justify operations).
Why we decided to fund Taimaka
We saw innovation potential in the combination of an unbureaucratic, start-up-like organization building its work on a well-researched approach. We fund in low-income countries (LIC) and in specific circumstances also in lower to middle-income countries (LMIC). Nigeria is a LMIC, but Gombe State, Taimaka’s focus region in the northeast, was underserved, which increased the additionality of our support. We recognized risks of spill-over from conflicts in neighboring regions (Boko Haram but even more between farmers and herders). At the same time, this challenging environment contributed to a high neglectedness score. Our hope was that they could pilot innovations with our grant and then tap into larger funding opportunities. Based on this, we decided to support Taimaka with a grant of EUR 50,000.
Strategic shifts: from post-harvest loans to malnutrition
Eventually, Taimaka decided not to continue PHLs but to focus on malnutrition treatment instead. This was a very deliberate decision, based on a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of both interventions (more on that here). Fast forward three years and Taimaka’s current model is one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives in the world. They’ve developed a malnutrition treatment model that is 63% cheaper than legacy approaches and have treated more than 12,000 children. All of this for a cost of $94 per patient compared to $251 cost-per-child in legacy approaches, and while achieving similar recovery rates to more costly interventions. Charity evaluators like Founder’s Pledge have identified them as one of the most cost-effective nonprofits in global health, with a cost-per-life saved of $1,500 – $4,500. In November 2024, they secured USD 4.8 million of funding from GiveWell to expand their treatment program over the next three years. They plan to treat 35,000 cases annually by 2027 with the support of GiveWell and other funders.
Growing together
With Taimaka, we supported a relatively young and small organization with an excellent, highly skilled, and motivated team. They were able to further professionalize and build the track record needed to meet the selection criteria of other funders.
As funders, our impact is only possible because of the incredible work our partners do. We are entirely dependent on the difference they make—without it, we would have no meaningful contribution. Although our funding for Taimaka has ended, we remain in touch and continue to learn from their work. Thank you, Umar, Justin, and the whole team, for helping us grow. We wouldn’t be the organization we are today without your input and feedback.
Thank you for being our partners!
