Whereas conventional theories depict the migrant organization in terms of its social and cultural dimensions, an emerging line of research expands “established models” of migrant organizations, empirically by widening the scope of analysis to include informal entities, and theoretically by taking account of their complex, dynamic functions. This study joins such discussions by examining the activities of refugee-run organizational entities, and then developing a synthesizing theoretical framework. Data were collected through 40 interviews of organizational leaders in 30 U.S. states, using Bhutanese refugees as case study. Findings suggest five types of “welfare support activities” of refugee-run grassroots organizations, and thus a repositioning within their institutional network, raising questions about organizational legitimacy and access to resources.

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