Market development funds

How does MDF work?

Almost every programme follows the same five steps: request, approval, activity, proof and claim. The rules inside each step are where partners lose money, because every vendor sets its own notice period, claim window and share of the cost. The table compares three programmes that publish their rules.

Programme	Ask before the activity	Claim deadline	Share the vendor pays
SonicWall SecureFirst (2023 guide)	At least 10 business days	Within 90 days of the activity end date	Up to 50%, based on ROI and proof of performance
OpenText Cybersecurity (2025 guide)	At least 90 days	Before the end of the quarter the activity runs in	Up to 100% of third-party invoices
Kaseya (as reported by Channel Dive)	At least 45 days before an event	Not published	Not published

Eligibility is narrower than many partners expect. SonicWall's guide opens MDF to Gold and Platinum partners, favours the higher tiers, extends it to Silver partners only at its discretion, and asks for "an active purchase and sales history" with its products in the previous quarter. OpenText runs its programme "by invitation only" and asks for a joint business plan first.

Can MSPs get MDF?

Yes, but few use it. In August 2026 Channel Dive reported that Kaseya approved about 1,300 MDF applications that year, from a partner base of more than 40,000. The same article cites Omdia research that two in five channel partners say they fail to make full use of MDF.

The article also tells the story of Tech Rage, a Florida MSP that started using MDF the year before. Co-founder Matt Rose used Kaseya MDF to help pay for events and booth appearances, and said the partnership cut Tech Rage's marketing budget in half. Another MSP in the piece, RedHelm, got MDF from a fibre provider to host a security seminar. Kaseya's Greg Jones told Channel Dive that some vendors' MDF processes run to 20 or 30 pages.

What will a vendor pay for with MDF?

Vendors pay for activity that puts their product in front of buyers: events, webinars, email campaigns, paid social, content and direct mail. They do not pay your running costs. OpenText's 2025 guide excludes dinners for customers, prospects or staff, TV and radio advertising, and internal sales incentives. Cisco's FY23 toolkit for its version, Marketing Velocity Funds, required proof of performance, proof of cost and proof that Cisco was represented before it would pay a claim.

How do you write an MDF request that gets approved?

Write the request around a campaign you would run anyway, and lead with what the vendor gets. Name one activity, the vendor priority it supports, the accounts you will target, itemised costs, the share you are asking for and the pipeline the vendor can expect. Then build the claim pack while the campaign runs: invoices, screenshots, attendee lists and copies of the emails. Our MDF request template has a fill-in version and a worked example.

How Yori helps with an MDF request

To draft an MDF request, use the Campaign Proposal Service in Yori, the AI marketing assistant for MSPs and resellers. It writes the case for approving and funding a campaign, which is what an MDF request is. Upload your vendor's MDF guide to the project so the draft follows its rules, then edit the proposal in Canvas. Each programme words its form differently, so check the draft against the vendor's own form before you submit. Once the request is approved, the Campaign Plan, Email Sequence and Marketing Budget Services draft the plan, the emails and the budget from the same context.

Every reply shows the credits it used. The free trial has 25 one-time credits, needs no card and expires after one month. Pro is £49 a month with 25 monthly credits. When your next MDF window opens, start the free trial and run the Campaign Proposal Service on the campaign you already planned.