Market development funds or MDF are used in an indirect sales channel where funds are made available by a manufacturer or brand to help affiliates, channel partners, resellers, VARs, or distributors, etc. sell its products and create local awareness about the national brand. Co-op Funds is a synonym for Market Development Funds.
There are approximately 4500 Co-op programs in the US made up of 50 product classifications on which some 50 billion dollars is spent each year. Slightly over half of that 50 billion dollars offered to partners each year by Brands goes unused because of uninformed partners implementation issues.[1]