Everybody could agree that the data situation has improved and that we know better than we did then who actually belongs to civil society (or the third sector, if one prefers to call it that). But some open questions remain: What about religious communities (excluded in the 1990s, but definitely to be included today)? Are civil society and volunteerism two sides of the same coin, or is the relationship more complex? Civil society has gained coherence and visibility – to a point where even democratic governments are afraid of being kicked out of the driver’s seat and seeking means and ways of reducing the soft power civil society players are exercising. Rupert Graf Strachwitz founded the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society, an independent research and policy centre, in 1997, and the Maecenata Foundation in 2010.