MDF and co-op funding differ in emphasis — MDF is usually discretionary and forward-planned, co-op is usually accrued as a percentage of purchases — but both share the same control requirement: the money is conditional on the activity actually happening and being demonstrable.
Where budget lives in one spreadsheet, partner commitments in another and proof-of-performance in a folder, nothing links money to evidence. Eight to twenty percent of MDF spend typically lacks adequate support, which is both unrecoverable from the funder and exposed at audit.
The structural fix is to make budget, CAP, commitment, deliverable and claim one linked object, so a fund cannot be drawn past its cap and cannot settle without the proof attached.