Nebraska § 9-211 - Lawful purpose, defined.

§ 9-211. Lawful purpose, defined.

(1) Lawful purpose, for a licensed organization or a qualifying nonprofit organization making a donation of its profits derived from the conduct of bingo solely for its own organization, shall mean donating such profits for any activity which benefits and is conducted by the organization, including any charitable, benevolent, humane, religious, philanthropic, youth sports, educational, civic, or fraternal activity conducted by the organization for the benefit of its members.

(2) Lawful purpose, for a licensed organization or a qualifying nonprofit organization making a donation of its profits derived from the conduct of bingo outside of its organization, shall mean donating such profits only to:

(a) The State of Nebraska or any political subdivision of the state but only if the donation is made exclusively for public purposes;

(b) A corporation, trust, community chest, fund, or foundation:

(i) Created or organized under the laws of Nebraska which has been in existence for five consecutive years immediately preceding the date of the donation and which has its principal office located in Nebraska;

(ii) Organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition;

(iii) No part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual;

(iv) Which is not disqualified for tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code by reason of attempting to influence legislation; and

(v) Which does not participate in any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for political office;

(c) A post or organization of war veterans or an auxiliary unit or society of, trust for, or foundation for any such post or organization:

(i) Organized in the United States or in any territory or possession thereof; and

(ii) No part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual; or

(d) A volunteer fire company or volunteer first-aid, rescue, ambulance, or emergency squad serving any city, village, county, township or rural or suburban fire protection district in Nebraska.

(3) No donation of profits under this section shall (a) inure to the benefit of any individual member of the organization making the donation except to the extent it is in furtherance of the purposes described in this section or (b) be used for any activity which attempts to influence legislation or for any political campaign on behalf of any elected official or person who is or has been a candidate for public office.

Facilitating the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters cannot be said to constitute a charitable activity, and therefore, retirement plan contributions inuring to the benefit of individual members do not constitute a use for a lawful purpose. Southeast Rur. Vol. Fire Dept. v. Neb. Dept. of Rev., 251 Neb. 852, 560 N.W.2d 436 (1997).