07 May 2025
Maximize the impact of your co-op funds—earn and invest available funds today
Partner Audience: CSP
Relevant to: #DoingBizwMSFT #GoToMarket #CrossSolution
What are co-op funds?
Cooperative Marketing Funds (Co-op) are earned funds claimed by participating partners to help differentiate and build channel awareness and preference for Microsoft products. Partners participating in an incentive with a co-op component will earn a portion in rebate (paid monthly) and a portion in co-op (accrued for six months based on fiscal calendar) to use on eligible co-op activities.
What are the co-op eligible activities?
Co-op can be utilized for three main activity categories: Demand Generation, Market Development, and Partner Skilling. You can use co-op funds to conduct marketing activities that increase brand awareness and drive growth of your sales pipeline. Invest your co-op funds in activities to facilitate readiness, develop specializations, or foster focused solution practices and Centers of Excellence.
| Demand Generation | Traditional advertising with broad reach that furthers the marketing and promotion of Microsoft offerings. Results and audience size are measurable. Qualifying activities • Print advertising • Digital advertising • Social media marketing • Direct mail/email/mobile SMS • Partner website and SEO • Microsoft syndicated content • Multi-touch digital campaign • Best Practice development • Trade shows and expositions |
| Market Development | Marketing activities designed for a specific customer audience that support the sale of Microsoft software licenses. Qualifying activities • Telemarketing • Customer seminars and bootcamps • Customer offers • Internal incentives and SPIFFs • On-site champs • Proof of concept • Solution building with third parties • Migration services • Employee purchase web setup for customers |
| Partner Skilling | Activities for the partner’s internal sales and technical personnel and include specific expenses related to training that helps develop the partner’s sales and technical expertise on Microsoft. Qualifying activities • Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program participation • Microsoft exams and tuition • Internal training and floor days • On-demand training • Microsoft-hosted conferences • Product seeding and demo units |
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you plan your co-op eligible activities:
- Featured Partner Sponsorships for first-party corporate-led Microsoft events (specifically Microsoft AI Tour, Ignite, Build, and Tech Connect) are eligible co-op activities.
- Partners may not use co-op to match Microsoft investments (such as MDF and SureStep).
- “Internal Seller Award trips” are ineligible as a co-op activity.
- “Specialization Audit Fees” are ineligible as a co-op activity.
Important dates
The funds you earn during the “Earning/Accrual Period” will be available to use during the “Usage Period”. Unclaimed co-op funds do not roll over from one usage period to the next. The periods follow Microsoft’s fiscal year.
| Earning / Accrual Period | Usage Period | Claim Deadline | Claim POE Approval Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY25 H1 (July 2024 – December 2024) | FY25 H2 (January 2025 – June 2025) | August 15, 2025 (23:59:59 UTC) | September 30, 2025 (23:59:59 UTC) |
| FY25 H2 (January 2025 – June 2025) | FY26 H1 (July 2025 – December 2025) | February 15, 2026 (23:59:59 UTC) | March 31, 2026 (23:59:59 UTC) |
| FY26 H1 (July 2025 – December 2025) | FY26 H2 (January 2026 – June 2026) | August 15, 2026 (23:59:59 UTC) | September 30, 2026 (23:59:59 UTC) |
| FY26 H2 (January 2026 – June 2026) | FY27 H1 (July 2026 – December 2026) | February 15, 2027 (23:59:59 UTC) | March 31, 2027 (23:59:59 UTC) |
| FY27 H1 (July 2026 – December 2026) | FY27 H2 (January 2027 – June 2027) | August 15, 2027 (23:59:59 UTC) | September 30, 2027 (23:59:59 UTC) |
Tips to maximize the impact of your co-op funds
⭐#1: Plan early.
Start planning your co-op activities a few months before the period begins to allow ramping up of existing marketing efforts or starting new ones (for example, engaging a new agency or testing a new channel).
Make the most out of your funds by creating an end-to-end marketing engine that builds on itself with emails, webinars, call-downs, and more. Leverage industry and account-based marketing techniques to target high-potential SMB customers in CloudAscent.
⭐#2: Keep POE requirements top of mind.
Take screenshots that include date and time stamp from your PC for activities you’re completing along the way. It’s better to have too many screenshots and not use them versus not having enough screenshots when it’s time to submit POE.
For any email programs include yourself on the send list as POE requires an actual email that was sent versus an email test.
⭐#3: Claim early.
Make sure to claim your co-op funds as you spend! Claiming as you spend can provide additional time needed for the typical back and forth with reviewers or requests for specific (POE) documentation.
Try to claim largest expenses first. You’ll put similar efforts into gathering POE for a large claim as you will for a small claim.
How to view your co-op funds
To view your incentive co-op funds:
- Sign in to Partner Center and select the Incentives workspace.
- Select Program and then select the appropriate incentive program from the expanded program list on the right.
- At the top of the program page, select View claims.
- Above Co-op claimed, select the usage period you want to see.
Doing so displays Co-op earned, Co-op claimed, and Remaining co-op for the selected period.
The expiration date for the selected period appears below the Remaining co-op display. - Scroll to the bottom of the page to view all claims submitted for the selected period.
Resources
If you’re not familiar with Co-op or want to learn more, get started with these resources:
- Microsoft Commerce Incentives
- Co-op collection
- Co-op and claims overview
- View available earned, claimed, and remaining co-op funds
- MCI Office Hours registration
- FY25 Co-op Guidebook
Join the conversation
Want to explore this and other topics you care about with Microsoft and other US partners? Head over to the Microsoft Americas Partner Community on LinkedIn.
