Giving Compass' Take:

• Here, experts weigh in on how COVID-19 will implicate and change philanthropy and charitable giving for the foreseeable future. 

• In what ways has your giving already changed? How can donors adapt to this crisis to maximize impact? 

• Read more about philanthropy in the time of COVID-19. 

As governments grapple with the scope of need associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, philanthropists are challenged to step up and fill the gap — and many are responding in kind. By the start of this month, more than $4.3 billion in philanthropic commitments had been made around COVID-19, said Jennifer Alcorn, deputy director of philanthropic partnerships for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

During a recent webcast hosted by Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), Alcorn and two other philanthropy professionals shared case studies in how the sector is responding and offered advice on how donors of any size can contribute. Read on for their insights.

  • In the U.S., the coronavirus relief bill provides incentive for charitable giving Of course, at a time when more than 22 million people — or roughly 1 in 7 American workers — have filed for unemployment benefits in the past four weeks alone, not everyone has the ability to give. But for those who are fortunate enough to be less financially affected by the pandemic and related shutdowns, the coronavirus aid bill enacted on March 27 provides incentive to give more, Laughton explained during SSIR's webcast.
  • Regional action plans put donations to work In the U.S., some of the leading philanthropic organizations on the front lines of COVID-19 are the country's more than 700 community foundations. While the average community foundation serves around 180,000 people from a given city or county, the scale of coronavirus-related challenges has prompted many to come together in united regional action plans.
  • More work is needed to fight the pandemic in the Southern Hemisphere As healthcare systems are pushed to the brink even in the world's wealthiest countries, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases is growing exponentially across Africa and South Asia. This is what keeps Jennifer Alcorn and her team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation up at night, she told attendees at the SSIR event.

Read the full article about implications of COVID-19 for philanthropy by Mary Mazzoni, at TriplePundit.