<p>This article explores how private sponsors perceive and manage their relationships with refugees resettled through community sponsorship programmes. The analysis is based on 15 cases of sponsorship in Germany, collected through semi-structured interviews with sponsors and 12 separate semi-structured interviews with refugees supported by these sponsors. Coding in MAXQDA according to a grounded theory approach was the primary methodology. The literature suggests that the everyday interactions of sponsors and refugees are framed by trust and power relations. An understudied aspect, however, is the role of expectations, with some research focusing on refugees’ expectations about their prospects in the host community. In contrast, our analysis considers the expectations of sponsors and suggests that misleading expectations on the part of sponsors can create tensions and conflicts in the relationship with refugees. The sponsors in our sample were motivated by the discourse of vulnerability in protracted refugee situations, which emphasised the limited agency of refugees due to trauma, exclusion and poverty. In the everyday practice of sponsorship, however, they encountered individuals who were determined to improve their circumstances. This more assertive orientation of refugees did not align with sponsors’ expectations regarding vulnerability, thereby creating an expectation gap. This article argues that the expectation gap has the potential to jeopardise community sponsorship programmes, ultimately leading to sponsorship failure and attrition.</p>