Resilience Under Pressure: Organizational Responses to Consecutive Crises in Czech Volunteer Centers

Based on a study of eight Czech volunteer centers, this research examines how nonprofit organizations navigate consecutive crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Using semi-structured interviews (2020–2023), our study reveals key impacts on resource allocation, staff burden, and program activities. Framing our analysis through the Resource-Based View, we conceptualize organizational resilience as a dynamic interplay of resource retention, adaptation, and depletion. We also introduce the concept of “resilience retention capacity” as the ability to stay functional under cumulative strain, highlighting implications for organizational sustainability. Findings indicate that while centers were adaptable, this often led to internal strain and difficult trade-offs. The paper highlights the long-term consequences of these responses, thereby contributing to an understanding of how human service organizations respond to overlapping crises.