The Coordination of Both Volunteers and Paid Staff in Nonprofit Organizations: A Scoping Review and Future Research Agenda

ABSTRACT Nonprofit organizations often rely on a mixed workforce of volunteers and paid staff, posing coordination challenges arising from differing roles, expectations, and motivations. Yet, existing research tends to focus on one group rather than their joint coordination. This study examines how volunteer‐paid staff coordination is conceptualized and investigated in nonprofit organizations, with attention to the field's theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. A scoping review was conducted following a registered protocol based on JBI and PRISMA‐ScR guidelines. Articles were collected from scientific databases ( n = 8) and screened in three rounds. Included articles ( n = 23) addressed nonprofit organizations, coordination, and interactions between volunteers and paid staff. This review classified the literature into three thematic clusters: volunteer‐paid staff coordination as (1) organizational design, (2) organizational identity and culture, and (3) relational and communicative process. The resulting classification reflects a structural–relational divide, with articles in the organizational identity and culture most effectively bridging both orientations, and those addressing relational and communicative processes making the most use of group‐level analysis. Methodologically, this theoretical divide is mirrored: structural approaches rely predominantly on quantitative designs, while relational approaches draw on qualitative methods. Role theory appears across all three clusters yet remains undertheorized, and group‐level analysis of the volunteer‐paid staff dyad remains underdeveloped. The literature has produced three coherent but largely noncommunicating conceptualizations of volunteer‐paid staff coordination. Future research should prioritize mixed‐methods and case study designs integrating structural and relational perspectives, incorporate non‐perceptual data, and further develop role theory and contingency approaches as integrative frameworks.