We value the support of Arts Council England, which has helped us at New Leaf Sustainable Developments Ltd develop artist-led interdisciplinary culture-change projects in response to the earth crisis.

This fund will enable us to develop the important work of delivering results for those in need. This management plan outlines the systems and processes that will keep our ACE grant-funded project on track and on budget, in addition to keeping all stakeholders informed of progress. Our management plan includes:

1. Reviewing the grant agreement: To carefully review every aspect of the grant agreement. Including how the grant funds will be spent, allocated and drawn down, New Leaf financial team of project manager and treasurer will review the relevant portions of the grant agreement to ensure that all terms are understood.
2. Establishing a system for tracking expenses:  To create transparency in the financial reporting process, to ensure a strong expense-tracking capabilities in place so that grant-funded projects run on schedule and within budgets. This involves consistent reconciliation, the ability to categorize expenses, maintaining documentation, performing regular audits, establishing approval workflows and building comprehensive reports for the New Leaf management team.
3. Developing a reporting schedule: As part of our Culture Counts Impact & Insight Toolkit, we will asses the impact your funds are having within our communities as part of our project evaluation matrix. And provide a grant report for ACE. Meet reporting requirements by maintaining regular financial and progress reports.
4. Developing a project management plan: We started developing our project management plan in the grant application to show we have expertise to manage ACE grant funds and deliver meaningful outcomes. In the grant award phase, we will review our plan and put into action with clear allocation of resources, established timelines, well-defined roles and assigned tasks. Including our contingency plan into their project management plans for when inevitable obstacles require new approaches. We will initiate project management tools, for task tracking and collaboration features that will keep our New Leaf team aligned and informed.
5. Manage the grant funds: To prevent budget overruns and misallocation. Through a process of tracking and reporting expenses to ensure the project objectives are supported. Including allocating funds to the correct budget lines and monitoring expenses with New Leaf’s Treasurer a trained and certified accountant, to supply monthly updates to the wider New Leaf membership. With Apple Accountants | Hereford Accountants
6. Marketing and Communications: To ensure that the project manager and New Leaf Marketing officer maintain regular information sharing on the progress of the project and that ACE and match funders are properly recognized in our social media and other communications.
7. Monitoring progress: Careful project monitoring, including our risk management log to mitigate and offset any setbacks and changes in the project. To keep our project on course including information analysis to track activities and outcomes against objectives and budgets for the grant award.
8. Maintain records: Maintaining a library of activities, to create a history of grant funding success to support our future applications claims. Using our cloud storage.
9. Strategic linkages: Maintaining and developing The seeded Wing project with regional and local authority plans, policies and strategies, maintaining links with public sector officers who are supporting our project in the region including West Midlands Combined Authority Herefordshire, Solihull Walsall and Birmingham Councils to help their delivery objectives. Including the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Environment Behavior Change Plan. Birmingham’s City of Nature Plan | Birmingham’s City of Nature plan | Birmingham City Council And WMCA’s Nature Recovery Strategy. As well as the new Herefordshire Cultural strategy created by the Herefordshire Cultural Partnership and Herefordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy
10. Climate, Eco Anxiety psychology and human geography research: Link with and learn from interdisciplinary climate and nature engagement research, liase with leading academics including Professor Peter Kraftl Loughborough university Professor of Human Geography. Dr Gareth Morgan , University of Leicester. A Chartered Clinical Psychologist and one of the clinical tutors on the University’s Clinical Psychology training programme. And Inner Climate Response Alliance a new partnership made up of the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and Climate Majority Project.
11. Grant Closeout Phase: Review the grant agreement for closeout requirements: For the final ACE project draw down.
12. Submit final progress and financial reports: To highlight key accomplishments and impact, by building documentation of accomplishments and impact stories for our final reports throughout the project process, as part of our Culture Counts Impact & Insight Toolkit.
13. Acknowledge the funding source: To recognize our ACE grant providers in all our marketing and comms, making sure information about ACE and match funders information is up-to-date.
14. Review and close out the grant file:  Taking one final review of the grant documentation to ensure that all terms and obligations have been met and all paperwork has been filed and stored. With centralized documentation in our cloud storage in clearly defined folders.