The Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) is a registered not-for-profit charitable organisation committed to the expansion and protection of democracy and the strengthening of civil society. IMPACS understands civil society to be the space between the state and the market where people join together to share ideas and take collective action. Its goal is to support this collective action of strong communities. It seeks to build strong communities by providing communications training and services to Canadian not-for-profit organisations, and by supporting free, open and accountable media internationally. It believes that when not-for-profit or civil society organisations do a better job of communicating the issues that are important in their communities - such as environmental protection and social justice - those issues are more fully and better represented in public policy debates. And it believes that all of these activities are critical to the overall health of communities across Canada. IMPACS' work is carried out through three main activity centres: the Communications Centre provides a range of communication training, skills development tools, services and materials through which IMPAC assists not-for-profit organisations of all sizes to develop more effective outreach skills and communication materials, and also runs Canada's first full-service, not-for-profit public relations organisation; the Charities and Democracy Project evaluates the laws which apply to appropriate advocacy activities by Canadian charities; and the International Media Program seeks to foster the development of free, critical and effective media world-wide and to enhance the media's role in the process of democratic development, good governance and public sector accountability and transparency. IMPACS' activities are overseen by a national board of directors and implemented by staff located in Canada in Vancouver and Toronto, and internationally in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. IMPACS is a federally registered charitable organisation (87266 5047 RR0001) which depends on a variety of sources of financial support to do its work.