Greenpeace is one of the best known non-governmental organizations (NGOs) world-wide. Bernd Wallraff explains one of the major success factors: Its elaborate structure of a professionally led volunteer organization. The success factors of volunteer work were examined in a comprehensive empirical study, based on data from Greenpeace in Germany.
The study is divided into three parts. The first part gives an overview of current research on the non-profit sector. In the second part the results of the empirical study about motives and success factors of volunteer work are presented. The third part describes practical methods and structures of volunteer work using examples from Greenpeace and other NGOs.