When the governor of Connecticut ordered all restaurants in the state to close on March 16, Colt Taylor quickly applied for a disaster loan from the Small Business Administration and called an emergency meeting to tell the 31 employees at his two restaurants that he could no longer pay them.

Before all that, Mr. Taylor had gone online and set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his unemployed staff.

GoFundMe, which allows anyone 13 or older to raise money for almost any cause, has become a go-to for emergency fund-raising, especially in the wake of disaster. As the new coronavirus has created unforeseen expenses for most Americans and shut down the U.S. economy, the platform is facing the greatest demand it has seen since its founding in 2010.

Between March 20 and March 24, the number of coronavirus-related campaigns on GoFundMe shot up by 60 percent, from 22,000 to 35,000. The stories told on those fund-raising pages convey the breadth of destruction that the new coronavirus has wreaked — grieving families facing costs for funerals that few will be able to attend, food pantries stretched thin, and unemployed artists, bartenders, substitute teachers and manicurists simply trying to survive.