§ 25-21,191.Not-for-profit organization; director, officer, or trustee; immunity from civil liability.

Section 25-21,191 protects the volunteers who run Nebraska’s not-for-profit organizations from personal civil liability for doing that job. As of August 30, 1987, a person serving as a director, officer, or trustee of a not-for-profit organization, who is not compensated on a salary or prorated-equivalent basis for those services, is immune from civil liability for an act or omission causing damage or injury, provided the person was acting within the scope of official functions and duties, unless that damage or injury was caused by willful or wanton conduct.

The immunity applies to how the director, officer, or trustee treats outside parties who might sue over the organization’s actions; it does not touch the internal relationship between that person and the organization itself. The section says directly that nothing in it establishes, diminishes, or abrogates any duties a director, officer, or trustee owes to the not-for-profit organization the person serves.

The statute also defines compensation narrowly enough to keep ordinary volunteer reimbursement from destroying the immunity. A director, officer, or trustee is not considered compensated merely because of payment of actual expenses incurred in attending meetings or in executing the office, meals received at meetings, or gifts not exceeding a total value of one hundred dollars in any twelve consecutive months. Someone who receives only those kinds of reimbursement still counts as uncompensated for purposes of this immunity.