Collaboration and relations are essential for most civil society organisations (CSOs). Still, little is known about what drives CSOs to collaborate among themselves when supporting refugees. By analysing drivers for collaboration and relational aspects in Malmö, Sweden, as the empirical setting, including how past, present, and anticipated future relations affect CSOs' organisational behaviour, the article aims to contribute to our understanding of CSOs' collaboration when supporting refugees. While collaborative drivers are important to understand the motivation to collaborate, adding a relational perspective helps us understand the complexity of collaboration, especially when CSOs do not exclusively collaborate to benefit their own organisation. The results show that past relations are essential for some collaboration, whereas other collaboration and behaviour create new ties and intensify existing ones. Moreover, the results demonstrate that on a local level, a variety of CSOs is crucial as they complement each other in covering different needs.