MDF-Eligible Activities: What Partners Can and Can't Spend MDF On

The principle behind eligibility

The question “what can MDF be used for?” has a specific answer in every programme — but underneath the variation is a single principle. MDF exists to fund activity that markets the vendor's products to end customers, generates demand, and can be evidenced. If a proposed cost passes those three tests — marketing purpose, demand intent, provable execution — it is usually eligible. If it fails any one of them, expect a rejection.

Eligibility rules are set by the vendor, so the definitive list for any given programme is the one in that vendor's guidelines. But the categories below hold across most technology MDF programmes, and knowing them helps partners propose activity that gets approved and helps vendors write rules that steer funds toward what actually converts. This taxonomy is a companion to our pillar guide on how to run an MDF programme, where eligibility is one of five core design decisions.

Commonly eligible activities

Across most programmes, the following are eligible MDF activities:

• Digital and content campaigns. Paid search and paid social, display, email marketing, content syndication, and co-branded content assets (guides, case studies, landing pages). Among the most measurable — and the easiest to attribute to pipeline.
• Events and webinars. Partner-hosted or joint, in-person or virtual — covering venue, platform, promotion, and content. A staple of channel demand generation.
• Telemarketing and lead generation. Outbound calling, appointment setting, and lead-gen programmes, often run through a third-party agency and funded by MDF.
• Account-based marketing. Targeted, multi-touch campaigns against a defined list of priority accounts — increasingly favoured for its focus and measurability.
• Sales enablement and training.Partner-facing enablement, sales tools, and collateral that help a partner sell the vendor's products more effectively.
• Advertising.Co-branded advertising in relevant trade or digital channels, provided the vendor's products are clearly promoted.

The common thread is demand: each of these puts the vendor's proposition in front of prospective customers and can be measured. For how these map to a fundable plan, see how to write an MDF proposal that gets approved.

Match funding: eligible doesn't always mean fully funded

A cost being eligible is not the same as it being fully covered. Many MDF programmes fund only a proportion of an approved activity — a match, commonly around 50/50 — with the partner co-investing the remainder. The rationale is alignment: a partner putting its own money in is far more likely to run the activity well and see it through, and the vendor's funds stretch across more partners. The exact split, and whether it applies to all activity types or only some, is set by the vendor and stated in the programme rules.

Two practical implications follow. First, when you propose an activity, be clear which portion you are asking MDF to cover and which you are funding yourself — a proposal that shows co-investment is easier to approve. Second, budget for the match: an eligible £10,000 campaign under a 50% programme still means £5,000 of your own money, and partners who miss this are caught short at claim time. If you are the vendor, a sensible match rate protects the budget and improves execution — but set it too high and you suppress utilisation, because thinly-resourced partners simply can't fund their share.

The grey areas

Some categories are eligible in one programme and excluded in another. Treat these as “check the rules first”:

• Agency and production fees. The cost of an agency to run a campaign is often eligible, but some programmes cap the proportion of a claim that can be professional services rather than media.
• Trade show stands.Frequently eligible, but with conditions — the vendor's branding must be present, and pure hospitality elements are usually carved out.
• Gifts and incentives.Customer incentives sometimes qualify within limits; staff incentives and entertainment usually don't.
• Tools and subscriptions.A marketing automation or intent-data subscription used for a funded campaign may qualify; general business software won't.

What usually gets rejected

The exclusions are as consistent as the eligible list. These are the costs that reliably bounce:

• Internal operating costs — salaries, general overheads, office expenses.
• Hardware and IT equipment — laptops, phones, infrastructure.
• Entertainment and hospitality — meals, golf days, purely social events.
• Price reductions — discounts or rebates passed to the end customer.
• Activity with no vendor branding — generic partner marketing that doesn't promote the vendor's products.
• Anything without proof of execution — if it can't be evidenced, it can't be claimed.

Why are these excluded? MDF is meant to develop the market— to create demand that wouldn't exist otherwise. Internal costs, hardware, and entertainment are business-as-usual expenses a partner would incur regardless, so funding them generates no incremental demand; it simply subsidises the partner. Once you see that logic, the exclusions become predictable: if a cost would exist with or without the campaign, it is probably not eligible.

That final point about proof catches more claims than any other. Even genuinely eligible activity gets rejected at claim time when the partner can't produce adequate evidence — which is why we wrote a full guide to MDF claims and proof of execution.

A quick eligibility check

Before proposing an activity, run it through four questions:

1. Marketing purpose? Does it market the vendor's products, not just the partner's business generally?
2. Demand intent? Is it designed to generate leads, pipeline, or awareness that leads to sales?
3. Provable? Can you evidence that it ran and, ideally, what it produced?
4. On the exclusions list? Is any part of it internal cost, hardware, or entertainment?

Three yeses and a no to the last question means it is very likely eligible. Any doubt, and the right move is to ask the vendor before you spend — approval up front is always cheaper than a rejected claim.

Making eligible spend count

Eligibility is the floor, not the ceiling. Funds spent on eligible-but-low-impact activity pass the rules and still waste the budget. The activities that return best are the ones you can tie to pipeline — which is why measurement should shape the activity mix, not just report on it after the fact. Tag every funded activity and attribute the pipeline it generates (see how to measure MDF ROI), and let those results steer next quarter's eligible spend toward what works.

This is also why eligibility rules shouldn't be static. The categories that convert in one market, product line, or partner segment won't be the same as in another, and they shift over time as buyer behaviour changes. A vendor who reviews eligibility against attribution data each cycle — tightening categories that consistently underperform and opening up ones that convert — keeps the programme pointed at pipeline rather than habit. Treated this way, eligibility becomes a steering mechanism, not just a compliance checklist.

The MDF Intelligence Platform tracks funded activity against pipeline so you can see which eligible categories actually convert, and our MDF programme optimisation service helps vendors write eligibility rules that push funds toward high-return activity in the first place.