Article 1 of the Saudi Endowments Authority Law

This article is the definitions article. It explains what the words that recur in the law mean, and it is consulted when reading any other article, unless the context of an article requires a different meaning.

Parties to the organization: "the Authority" is the General Authority of Endowments (Article 2 sets out its legal nature), "the Board" is its board of directors, "the Chairman" is the chairman of that board, and "the Governor" is the governor of the Authority.

There are three types of endowment:

• Public endowment: one whose condition is for specific public charitable purposes, identified by name or by description.
• Private (family) endowment: one whose condition is for specific persons among descendants and relatives, by name or by description.
• Joint endowment: one whose condition combines more than one type, for example where part is for descendants and part for charitable purposes.

Parties to the endowment: "the endower" is the person who creates the endowment, "the endower's condition" is the wording they set regarding the endowment, its income, its spending, its supervisor or the beneficiary, and "the beneficiary" is the one who benefits according to that condition.

The supervisor, supervision and management: the supervisor may be an individual or a legal entity, and handles "supervision," that is, the acts that serve the interest of the endowed property and its income: preserving it, leasing it, developing it, repairing it, litigating over it and spending its proceeds according to the endower's condition. "Management" is what the supervisor entrusts to another of preserving, leasing, developing and repairing the endowment; note that its definition does not mention litigation or spending proceeds, which the definition of supervision does mention.