I guess, kinda? In my head, a Verein is definitely more of a hobby/socialising thing, but I do have to say that "club" certainly doesn't feel impactful enough. Like, Germany as a whole would fall apart, if you took the Vereine away.

For example, the Red Cross is an e.V. here. There's e.V.s that support the local voluntary firefighters (although those are also organized by the municipality). We've got big-ass nature preservation e.V.s that do really important work in suing awful corporations. Local sports organizations and orchestras and whatnot are also organized as e.V.s. And perhaps the most relevant in this community is the KDE e.V., which helps organize/assist the wider KDE community.

So, yeah, some of them definitely do work that one might expect from a charity...