“At this moment, we have to understand the human toll of this crisis and move some of our investment into direct humanitarian support,” Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society Foundations, said in an interview.

The foundation is providing $15 million to the nonprofit New York City Fund for Public Schools to support its efforts, including remote learning initiatives and centers to care for the children of workers on the front lines of the crisis. Another $2 million in funding includes grants to help the homeless and efforts to reduce the prison population, where the virus has spread aggressively.

Mr. Gaspard described the $130 million as only an “initial investment” from the foundation.

About half of that total is earmarked for the United States, and half to other countries. The foundation is contributing $12 million to relief funds in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington.

The foundation is also giving $2 million to the Coronavirus Care Fund of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which is supporting home-care workers whose jobs have vanished. Another $2.8 million is going to the foundation’s investment in a platform the alliance is using to help connect with gig workers who might otherwise fall through the cracks with service providers.

“The scale of this pandemic has laid bare the fault lines and injustices of our world,” Mr. Soros said in a statement. “We missed the opportunity to create a more just economy after the financial crisis of 2008 and provide a social safety net for the workers who are the heart of our societies.