When war broke out in Israel on October 7th, 2023, charitable donations flooded in from around the world. People wanted to help, wanted to contribute, wanted to be part of the solution. But according to Avi Zimmerman, founder of Sector 4 Strategy and Support, that initial wave of generosity revealed a troubling gap: most donors weren’t asking enough questions about where their money was actually going.

In a recent conversation on Biblical Money, Rabbi Rami Goldberg’s podcast exploring faith, finance, and business, Rabbi Rami sat down with his childhood friend from West Orange, New Jersey to discuss a radical rethinking of how we approach charitable giving. Their conversation revealed lessons Zimmerman learned the hard way over decades of building communities across Israel, all filtered through a biblical lens on what giving really means.

A Unique Path to Philanthropy

Zimmerman’s journey to becoming one of Israel’s leading voices on strategic giving was anything but conventional. After making aliyah right out of high school, he served in the IDF through the Hesder program and trained as an occupational therapist. But his career took a dramatic turn in 2005 when he moved to Ariel, the capital of Samaria, and was tapped by the city’s founding mayor, Ron Nakman, to run an aliyah program bringing Americans to the region.

“I said, you know what, I’ll put my OT practice on the side for a bit,” Zimmerman recalled. “I’ll get back to that in a year or two. Let me just jump start this thing.” That temporary detour turned into more than a decade running the Ariel Foundation and Ariel Development Fund, building an international network of supporters for the community.

From there, Zimmerman earned an MBA from Ariel University and founded the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He assembled a group of Christian investors from across the United States to invest specifically in Judea and Samaria, serving as boots on the ground while building bridges between American Christians and Israeli entrepreneurs.

The Jewish-Christian Partnership in Action

That experience working with Christian investors proved formative. “It was a combination of Christian investors and me,” Zimmerman explained. “The investment community was US-based Christians from across the US, essentially just about coast to coast.” The partnership reflected a growing reality: Christians and Jews working together to strengthen Israel’s heartland.

Today, through his consulting firm Sector 4 Strategy and Support, Zimmerman focuses on helping nonprofits operate with business-level professionalism while giving donors the tools for what he calls “kosher giving,” better giving that creates measurable impact.

The Three Elements of Strategic Giving

When the war began, Zimmerman and his team noticed something concerning. “There was an explosion of giving at the beginning of the war, which is very positive in and of itself,” he said. “But there were not a lot of questions asked. People could have written practically blank checks, not thinking a lot about where that money was going.”

From a biblical perspective, Zimmerman argues, that’s a problem. “When you’re entrusted with funds, that’s a responsibility. You have no less of a fiduciary responsibility than the nonprofit manager who’s holding those funds for you.”

His solution? A three-part framework he calls “the giving arc”:

Purpose: What should you be giving to? Not what’s the best cause objectively, but what’s the best cause for you. “Even though you and I both grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, we both made aliyah, we both love living in Israel and raising our families here, you actually have a different giving purpose than I do,” Zimmerman told Goldberg. Drawing on Torah law, he noted that the principle of giving first to your own community means someone living in Beit Shemesh has different responsibilities than someone living in Ariel.

Agents: Who will facilitate your giving? Just as you’d fire an investment advisor who consistently loses your money, you should demand transparency and results from those managing your charitable dollars. “It’s not like, oh, this is my tithe bucket, so I’m done with that check. I sent it off. I hope it goes to a good place,” Zimmerman said. “You still have that responsibility to make sure it’s going to the right place.”

Impact: What results are you actually achieving? This requires planning your giving like a business plans its quarters, setting goals, measuring outcomes, and using those results to inform next year’s strategy.

Give More Than You Take

When Goldberg asked about Zimmerman’s personal giving philosophy, he explained. “I have a pretty simple motto for life: Give more than you take,” he said. “Make sure that not only the dollars that you’re giving, but the way that you live your life is in such a way that you take what you’ve been given and you make sure to give back more than you’ve taken in the first place.”

He illustrated this with the story of Joseph, who only succeeded when he stopped dreaming about himself and started helping others achieve their dreams. “When he finally gets out of jail and he goes to Pharaoh, he does not only interpret Pharaoh’s dream, but he gives him a pragmatic plan for implementation,” Zimmerman explained. “By making the dreams of other people come true, not his own dreams, eventually his dreams do come true.”

It’s a philosophy that runs through everything Zimmerman does, from consulting with major donors to valuing the $17.36 donation from a woman in Dallas, Texas who gave everything she could afford that month.

True Worth

Zimmerman closed the interview with a story. A young man once approached a wealthy individual and asked how much he was worth. When the man gave a modest figure, the young man laughed, knowing his assets were worth ten times that amount.

“You know, you didn’t ask me what my balance sheet looks like,” the wealthy man replied. “You didn’t ask me about my yacht, my properties, none of that. You asked me, “what am I worth,” and I want you to know I’m only worth what I have given to others. That’s what I’m worth. I’m not worth what I have, because what I have I don’t get to take with me. The only thing that’s mine is what I’ve given to other people.”

It’s a principle Zimmerman lives by. And with Israel still at war, still facing threats on multiple fronts, getting charity right matters more than it did before October 7th. The Jews and Christians who support Israel need to know their dollars are actually making a difference.

Watch the episode here.