Giving Compass' Take:

• Jonathan Pershing and Jane Flegal, at Alliance Magazine, discuss the importance of rebuilding from COVID-19 with an emphasis on sustainability and racial justice.

• What role can donors play in rebuilding a more just world after COVID-19? What steps are you prepared to take to that end? 

• Learn about why you should increase your giving in order to focus on equity in rebuilding from COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a gut punch to the world. Millions of people infected. Hundreds of thousands dead. And the effects disproportionately falling on BIPOC communities facing systemic racism and structural inequality.

It is a public health emergency compounded by an unprecedented economic slowdown and a too long delayed racial reckoning. And our vulnerabilities are at least as much social, political, and institutional as they are about our physical vulnerabilities to the virus.

Unless we address these vulnerabilities, we will open ourselves to another threat – and one that is much bigger than COVID: climate change. According to the latest science, climate chanRebuilding With Equity And Climate Awareness Post-Pandemicge will continue to disrupt habitats, and we can anticipate additional pandemic-scale disease transmission to people around our interconnected world. We are already seeing communities – particularly BIPOC communities – devastated by rising seas, out-of-control wildfires, torrential flooding, and parching droughts.

So, as we respond to COVID-19, we need to intervene in ways that address the underlying sources of our vulnerability in order to create a stronger and more resilient future; in short, we need to build back better. We cannot return to the unsustainable, racist, and inequitable practices of the past if we are to establish both a fairer and more resilient economy and have a chance to avoid the incalculable damages of climate change.

But even as philanthropies everywhere seek to alleviate the immediate need, we should keep our eye on the long-term and take action now to mitigate the looming disaster of global climate change. And if we go into the recovery with the right goals, listening to and elevating the right set of voices, and prepared to make the choices that are up to us, we will come back stronger and better.

Read the full article about rebuilding from COVID-19 by Jonathan Pershing and Jane Flegal at Alliance Magazine.