According to a Borrell Associates study, roughly 40% of co-op funds (more than $14 billion annually) go unused. That is not a creativity problem. It is a governance and workflow problem: the same money, the same 40%, the same root cause on both sides of the channel - programs that run on spreadsheets, email, and memory. The ten practices below are what separate programs that run well from programs that quietly leak money. They come from conversations with the people who actua

Why Co-Op Funds Go Unused — and How to Fix It Executive Summary Across the manufacturer-distributor channel, co-op funds routinely go unclaimed. According to a Borrell Associates study, roughly 40% of co-op funds — more than $14 billion annually — go unused. That is money manufacturers allocated to grow their brands in local markets, and reimbursements distributors earned but never collected. This white paper examines the structural reasons funds go unspent, what the leak c

How a governed platform cuts co-op overhead by 50% or more Co-op marketing programs should be revenue accelerators. Too often, they operate as administrative burdens — consuming hours every week on email chains, spreadsheets, inconsistent guidelines, and approvals that go nowhere. The stakes are larger than lost time. According to a Borrell Associates study, roughly 40% of co-op funds — more than $14 billion annually — go unused, in large part because the process of claiming

Real-time budget visibility for co-op marketing programs Here's a question most co-op program managers can't answer on demand: Where does every budget stand — right now? Not at quarter close. Not after two days of compiling spreadsheets from three regions. Right now. When you're governing dozens of promotions across multiple sales regions and offices, knowing who has spent what — and when — shouldn't require an archaeology project. But for most teams, it does. Budgets live in