Invest in volunteering
Clubs carry social life in Germany, yet their digital tools are often fragmented, expensive, or data-hungry. CLUP.life offers them a shared, free, privacy-friendly home. We are looking for investors who want to help make that happen.
Vision
Every club in Germany has a digital home where members, families, associations, and municipalities come together, without anyone having to pay with their data.
Market potential
Clubs are widespread across Germany, millions of people are involved in them, and their leaders shoulder a great deal of administration. The following table lists only figures that we read in the source itself, each with source, publisher, date, and link. The figures are not a forecast and not a market size for CLUP.life.
| Figure | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Clubs and memberships | ||
Associations (e. V.) entered in the register of associations, latest data
That is more than 10,000 more clubs than in 2022 (according to the source). Limitation: Register count, not the number of active clubs: the register may also contain dissolved clubs that have not yet been deleted (note from ZiviZ, Zivilgesellschaft in Zahlen, a research initiative on civil society). The value is the status in the first quarter of 2026. | ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Published September 2026; extract of the register of associations in March 2026 |
Clubs and civil society organizations in 2022
According to the source, clubs make up almost 94 percent of civil society organizations. Limitation: Register figures; the number of actually active organizations may be lower (note in the report). | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht (englische Fassung): Civil Society Organizations in Transition ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2022, published 2023 |
New club foundings and dissolutions in 2021
Limitation: Older value (based on data from the Federal Office of Justice, Bundesamt für Justiz); no indication of later developments, and the 2026 paper describes a new wave of foundings. Not a forecast. | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht (nach Daten des Bundesamts für Justiz) ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2021, published 2023 |
Sports clubs and memberships in organized sport
Limitation: These are memberships, not people: anyone who belongs to several clubs is counted several times. We cite the press release of the DOSB (Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund, the German Olympic Sports Confederation) as copied by the Deutscher Basketball Bund (German Basketball Federation); we did not retrieve the original on dosb.de. | DOSB-Bestandserhebung 2025, Pressemitteilung „Nächster Mitgliederrekord im deutschen Sport“ Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (DOSB) | As of January 1, 2025, published November 11, 2025 |
| Volunteer engagement | ||
Engagement rate, Deutscher Freiwilligensurvey (German Volunteer Survey) 2024
Limitation: The source says “around 27 million people”; we give no more precise figure. The comparison with 2019 is methodologically limited; we have not analyzed the main report of the 2024 survey. | Freiwilliges Engagement bleibt stabil (Meldung zum Deutschen Freiwilligensurvey 2024) Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung | Survey 2024, news item of September 7, 2026 |
Engagement rate, Fifth Deutscher Freiwilligensurvey 2019 (comparison over time)
Limitation: Superseded by the 2024 survey; cited only as a comparison over time. The comparability of the surveys is limited. | Bundesministerium (BMBFSFJ) / Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen | Data from 2019, news item of March 18, 2021 |
| Challenges in clubs | ||
Organizations that cannot find enough volunteers for leadership positions
Limitation: Applies to civil society organizations in total, not just clubs. A new ZiviZ survey is in progress; we do not have its results. | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht, Abschnitt 7 (S. 33) ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2022, published 2023 |
Administrative workload of the governing body Almost three quarters of organizations consider the administrative tasks of their central governing body particularly time-consuming (verbatim: “nearly three-quarters”). Limitation: The source gives no exact percentage in the text, so we give none. Applies to civil society organizations in total. | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht, Zusammenfassung (S. 3) ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2022, published 2023 |
Recruiting members
Only one in four organizations currently has enough members (verbatim: “one in four”). Limitation: Applies to civil society organizations in total. | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht, Abschnitt 7 (S. 30) ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2022, published 2023 |
Digitalization in organizations
Limitation: We did not find a figure in the source on how many clubs have problems with digitalization and therefore give none. | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht, Abschnitt 9.2 (S. 52 ff.) ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2022, published 2023 |
Financial and human resources
More than half of civil society organizations have total revenue below 10,000 euros. Limitation: This says something about the organizations’ resources, not about their IT budget or willingness to pay; we have no figure for that. | ZiviZ-Survey 2023, Hauptbericht, Zusammenfassung (S. 2) ZiviZ im Stifterverband | Data from 2022, published 2023 |
Sports clubs that see their existence threatened because of a lack of volunteers More than one in six sports clubs sees its existence threatened because it cannot find and keep enough volunteers (verbatim after the DOSB: “mehr als jeder sechste Verein”). Limitation: Sports clubs only. The statement comes from the DOSB press release quoting the Sportentwicklungsbericht (sports development report); we have not read the report itself. | DOSB-Bestandserhebung 2025, Pressemitteilung (zitiert den Sportentwicklungsbericht) Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (DOSB) · Secondary source | 2025 |
| Municipalities and counties | ||
Counties and independent cities
Limitation: Status of the page on the 2024 European election; we have not checked territorial changes since then. | Die Bundeswahlleiterin | 2024 |
Municipalities in Germany
Limitation: Secondary source (Statista citing the Federal Statistical Office, Statistisches Bundesamt); we did not read out the Federal Statistical Office’s municipality directory itself. | Anzahl der Gemeinden in Deutschland nach Gemeindegrößenklassen am 31. Dezember 2024 Statista (nach Statistischem Bundesamt) · Secondary source | December 31, 2024 |
All sources retrieved on 10/31/2026. Register figures also count clubs that have since been dissolved but not yet deleted; figures from different sources cannot be added up and are partly not comparable.
What we cannot substantiate
We have no figure for these items because we found no reliable source. We do not estimate them and do not extrapolate them.
- Market size for club software: We did not find a reliable figure for the revenue or volume of the market for club management and club software in Germany or the DACH region. We do not estimate it and do not extrapolate it from list prices.
- IT spending and willingness to pay of clubs: We did not find any source that documents how much clubs spend or would spend on software. All that is documented is that more than half of civil society organizations have less than 10,000 euros in revenue per year (see above); an IT budget cannot be derived from that.
- Number of clubs recognized as nonprofit: We did not find a central official statistic on this; we did not adopt older estimates because we have not verified them in the original.
- Number of umbrella associations of clubs: We did not find a reliable figure for this either.
Competition
Clubs already have good tools to choose from. The following overview reflects what well-known providers say about themselves on their home pages; it does not rate any provider.
| Provider | Self-reported on the home page | Source |
|---|---|---|
| easyVerein | “More than 8,000 clubs and associations”; member management, accounting, and events in one software. | easyverein.com |
| Vereinsplaner | In use at “15,000+ clubs in the DACH region”. | vereinsplaner.com |
| ClubDesk | “20,000+ active clubs”. | clubdesk.de |
| SPORTMEMBER | Counter on the home page: 46,720 clubs; over 400,000 users sign in each month; “Basic” plan free. | sportmember.de |
| Spond | Free-to-use app, by its own account “fully GDPR-compliant”; millions of users in thousands of clubs (no exact figure). | spond.com |
| campai | Club software; the home page gives no customer count. | campai.com |
| TeamSnap | By its own account the number 1 for team management in youth sports (USA, unverified); no user count on the page. | teamsnap.com |
| Heylo | Group app (USA/UK) for events, communication, and payments, free except for a small service fee on payments; no total user count on the page. | heylo.com |
Data as of 10/31/2026. These are the providers’ own statements, paraphrased and not independently verified; counters may also include inactive accounts. Figures from different providers are not comparable. We have deliberately left out prices and other features here.
Business model
- Basic: free for all clubs and members, with all features for taking part, security, data protection, and the legal minimum tasks.
- Premium: Additional features for administration, analytics, and associations for a small cost contribution.
- Sponsorship: Companies support local clubs, openly and without tracking; the platform receives a fee for this.
Investor room
After a request, email confirmation, an accepted confidentiality agreement, and approval by the management, interested investors get access to a protected room with annual financial statements, strategy, member growth, roadmap, and financial planning. Access is time-limited and requires a second factor (passkey or authenticator app); every access is logged, and downloads carry your watermark.
Request access to the investor room
Do you already have approval? To the investor room
Request access to the investor room
In four steps: details, confirmation of your email address by code, reading and accepting the confidentiality agreement, and review by the management.
Requesting access to the investor room will be possible soon. Until then, you can reach us through the “Talk to us” form.
Talk to us
Write to us if you are interested. We will get back to you and clarify next whether and how we can open the room for you.
Contact for investor conversations: Christian D. Borchert, Management. chris@clup.life