Saudi Arabia is undergoing a transformational shift, leveraging regulatory reforms to position its non-profit and impact sector as a driving force for national and regional development. This chapter explores how Vision 2030’s ambitious agenda has unlocked new opportunities for philanthropy, impact investing, and catalytic capital, enabling a once-traditional charitable landscape to evolve into a $2.7 billion economic powerhouse.

With the number of non-profit organizations surging from 4,000 to over 62,000 in just seven years, Saudi Arabia is pioneering a new model of impact-driven growth. The chapter delves into groundbreaking regulatory reforms, digital philanthropy, innovative financing models, and multi-sector partnerships. It highlights how Saudi Arabia’s rise as a regional leader in the impact space can set the stage for a more dynamic and globally connected non-profit ecosystem.

This chapter investigates the strategic investments by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE toward non-hydrocarbon-based energy sources. This move marks a critical juncture in the region’s energy policy landscape. Driven by a multifaceted agenda – reducing reliance on hydrocarbons, mitigating carbon emissions, and fostering a more diversified and industrially productive economy – the Gulf states are actively pursuing renewable and nuclear energy solutions. Their path, however, is fraught with obstacles, and this chapter critically examines the institutional barriers with the potential to significantly impede their progress.

The chapter discusses how Islamic charity has functioned as an umbrella that granted legitimacy to all kinds of youth practices in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Charity here emerges as lifestyle and liberty, as a safe space that has allowed Saudi youth to test the boundaries, experiment with lifestyles, and enjoy sociability and autonomy outside of the family.

At the heart of the chapter are the Hikers, an informal organization that began in 2010 by promoting hiking, sports, and cultural events for a social cause. Like many youth initiatives at the time, it reflected a wish to bring about change and to be part of broader societal change to which it was contributing. Despite the group’s apolitical character, this public orientation put them at risk of surveillance and intervention. The "Third Sector" has become an integral part of the new political agenda of King Salman’s government. The chapter explores the ways in which the Saudi state has increasingly regulated and monitored civil society activism, through new institutions and legislation passed over the last decade, in the name of promoting the "Third Sector" in Saudi Arabia.