Within a few months of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, more than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees arrived in the Czech Republic.

Social service nonprofits responded immediately. They organized emergency housing, connected refugees with schools and healthcare, helped families navigate government services and distributed food and other basic necessities. In the first weeks of the crisis, those nonprofits relied on volunteers and existing community networks to meet urgent needs.

I research nonprofits. My Fulbright Scholarship in the Czech Republic coincided with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, providing an unexpected opportunity to study how nonprofits responded to the refugee crisis. With my colleagues Monica Lea and Vladimir Hyánek, I interviewed 13 Czech nonprofit leaders between February and June 2022. About a year later, we surveyed 235 Czech nonprofits.

One finding stood out: Many nonprofits that mobilized to help Ukrainian refugees weren’t starting........

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