Snowflake and Databricks Partner Funds: MDF, Incentives and Proposals

Snowflake and Databricks both fund services partner marketing, but neither publishes a public MDF rulebook with amounts, cost shares or claim deadlines. Snowflake ties co-marketing funds and incentives to its Select, Premier and Elite tiers and to deal and service registration. Databricks offers proposal-based MDF for Silver partners, strategic co-investment funds for Platinum partners, and Velocity incentives across the customer lifecycle. Snowflake has also announced a Snowflake Partner Network update that takes effect November 2, 2026, covered first below.

Updated September 12, 2026. Snowflake announced program changes on September 9, 2026 that take effect November 2, 2026, and Databricks restructured its partner program in February 2026. Points about Snowflake's earlier program are marked where the November changes affect them. Confirm tiers, funds and rules in the Snowflake Partner Network portal or the Databricks Partner Portal before you commit spend.

This guide is for data and AI consultancies working one or both ecosystems. Because the public detail is thin, it leans on what to ask, what to write and what to keep. For the cross-vendor view, start with our partner MDF guide, and for how we run pipeline programs for consulting partners, see system integrators.

What changes in the Snowflake Partner Network on November 2

On September 9, 2026, Amy Kodl, Snowflake's SVP of worldwide alliances and channels, announced what Snowflake calls its most comprehensive Snowflake Partner Network update in years. New benefits and requirements take effect November 2, 2026. Snowflake frames it as a mutual commitment: Snowflake adds capital, co-marketing and sales support, and partners meet a higher bar that includes adopting Snowflake CoCo, Snowflake CoWork and Snowflake Cortex AI. The post says Snowflake's partner investments have more than doubled since FY 2024, but it does not give an amount.

The post also includes a proof point services partners can learn from. Elite Services partner CitiusTech used CoCo on an enterprise migration for a major health insurer, and CitiusTech's CEO says job refactoring time fell from three to five days to two to four hours, cutting the overall timeline from 7.5 months to 2.5 months.

What the public announcement does not say: the names of the regional zones or the metrics each uses, how many accredited people a partner needs, credit amounts, and whether Service Registration Incentives or Partner Development Funds change. Snowflake points partners to the full program enhancements in the SPN portal and is running partner webinars on September 16 for APJ and September 17 for AMS and EMEA. As of September 12, 2026, Snowflake's services partner page still lists Select, Premier and Elite and does not yet mention CoCo or regional zones.

What partners should do before November 2

1. Read the full enhancements. Review them in the SPN portal, join the September 16 or 17 webinar, and write down which requirements apply to your track and tier.
2. Start the CoCo Foundational Accreditation. Ask your partner manager how many accredited people your tier and track should carry, since Snowflake has not published a number.
3. Confirm your regional zone. Ask which zone you fall into and which metrics it uses, then recheck your tier position against them, especially if you are an international partner.
4. Plan the credits. With larger credits that now last a year, build one demo or accelerator on CoCo and Cortex AI for a use case you already sell.
5. Line up cobranded proof. Pick one customer story you can publish with Snowflake as a case study, blog and social posts, and keep registering services and deals, which Snowflake's services page still names as the gate to funding and incentives.
6. Product partners: plan for Elite. If you hold or want Elite Data Cloud Product status, schedule Cortex AI embedding and Ready Tech Validation now.
7. Turn the accreditation push into pipeline. Package a CoCo-assisted migration offer and run it against named accounts with account-based marketing. Our Snowflake partners page has target accounts and plays.

Snowflake vs Databricks at a glance

Snowflake: tiers, funds and incentives

This section describes Snowflake's program as published before the September 9, 2026 announcement. Where the November 2 changes affect a point, it is noted.

Snowflake's services partner page organizes AI Data Cloud Services Partners into Select, Premier and Elite. It says your tier reflects certifications, closed pipeline, deal registrations and customer success stories, and that higher tiers come with greater co-sell support, marketing investment and program benefits. From November 2, 2026, Snowflake adds regional zones to this tier structure, with metrics tailored to each region.

On money, the same page says qualified partners can access funding and joint campaigns such as webinars, case studies and blog features, and points partners to co-marketing funds and campaign support. Registering services and deals in the partner portal is the gate: it is how you reach co-sell status and qualify for funding and incentives.

Snowflake's partner network page adds co-marketing dollars, referral rebates on new deals, service credits on expansion opportunities, and Marketplace Capacity Drawdown, which lets customers buy partner solutions with committed Snowflake spend.

Channel Insider's September 2025 report on the previous round of changes adds three points, all of which predate the November 2026 update:

• A new tiering structure for the AI Data Cloud Services partner program.
• Service Registration Incentives (SRI), a new way to earn incentives for driving successful customer engagements.
• SPN investments committed to training and certifying partners, executing demand generation activities and developing solutions on Snowflake, with the Partner Development Funds program being expanded and streamlined.

Snowflake's September 2026 announcement mentions neither Service Registration Incentives nor Partner Development Funds, so treat both as unconfirmed after November 2 until your partner manager or the portal confirms them.

Certifications matter for tier movement. Snowflake lists certification paths across Engineer, Architect, Analyst and Scientist roles, and from November 2 it backs its CoCo standard for services partners with a new CoCo Foundational Accreditation. What is not public: fund amounts, cost share, the request form, approval lead times, claim deadlines and regional zone metrics.

Databricks: Brickbuilder Partner Network and Velocity

Databricks announced the Brickbuilder Partner Network on February 11, 2026, with four unified tiers and a shift in partner economics from bookings to lifecycle value. Its marketing funds range from proposal-based MDF for Silver partners to strategic co-investment funds for Platinum partners.

Velocity incentives have three parts:

• Source: rewards for sourcing new use cases and greenfield accounts.
• Activate: SPIFFs for driving early adoption.
• Grow: recurring consumption rebates as clients expand.

The Databricks partner program page describes the tiers:

Advancement runs on a Partner Value Score built from use case submissions, certifications, customer satisfaction tracking and reference stories. Specializations launch across 6 core industries and 4 core products, including GenAI and Lakeflow, plus Delivery Expert badges for practitioners. Databricks also defines Brickbuilder Solutions and Accelerators, which make strong campaign anchors.

Not public: MDF amounts, Bronze or Gold fund access, eligible activities, Velocity rates and deadlines. Databricks itself tells partners to talk to their Partner Account Manager and check the Partner Portal.

How funds are requested

Neither vendor documents a public request workflow. Databricks calls Silver MDF proposal-based, and Snowflake ties funding to registration and qualification. These steps are our recommended operating sequence, not published vendor rules.

1. Confirm tier and status in the portal, including certifications that count and, for Snowflake from November 2, your regional zone and CoCo Foundational Accreditation status.
2. Register everything you can. Snowflake deals and services; Databricks use cases that feed your Partner Value Score.
3. Ask your partner manager eight questions: fund name, eligibility, amount range, cost share, eligible activities, approval lead time, claim deadline, required evidence.
4. Write the proposal against vendor outcomes: co-sell and consumption for Snowflake; the Velocity stage (usually Source for net-new) for Databricks.
5. Get written approval before any spend.
6. Execute and collect proof activity by activity.
7. Claim and report pipeline, then use the results in your next proposal.

Keep the answers to those eight questions in one shared document, with the date and the name of the person who confirmed each point. Partner managers change, and a dated confirmation is the only record you will have if a claim is questioned later.

Activities that typically qualify

Treat every row as something to confirm for your tier and region before spending.

Proof of performance checklist

• Written approval (email or portal record) naming activity, dates and amount.
• Third-party invoices split by activity and by vendor, never shared across Snowflake and Databricks claims.
• Final creative showing correct vendor branding and partner tier badge usage.
• Webinars: registration and attendance exports, recording, agenda, co-presenter names.
• Paid and ABM: dated screenshots, impressions, clicks, target account engagement.
• Outbound: sequence copy, send counts, replies, meetings booked.
• Registrations created: Snowflake deal or service registrations, Databricks use case submissions.
• Pipeline sheet: meetings, opportunities, value, workload in scope.

Proposal template

TITLE: [Use case] for [segment], [quarter]
VENDOR: [Snowflake / Databricks]   TIER: [ ]   PARTNER MANAGER: [ ]
FUND: [co-marketing / Partner Development Funds / proposal-based MDF / confirm]

1. Why now
   Customer problem, trigger events, vendor priority it supports

2. Audience
   Accounts: [count], list attached   Roles: [CDO, CIO, Head of Data]
   Current platform status: [greenfield / migration / expansion]

3. Activities
   A1 [Joint webinar or roundtable] [date]
   A2 [ABM ads + outbound to named accounts] [dates]
   A3 [Case study or accelerator launch] [date]

4. Vendor outcome
   Snowflake: [deal registrations, service registrations, consumption]
   Databricks: [Velocity stage: Source / Activate / Grow, use cases]

5. Budget
   Third-party costs by activity [ ]   Total [ ]
   Requested [ ] (per confirmed cost share)

6. Measurement
   Registrations, meetings, opportunities, pipeline, registrations filed

7. Proof plan and claim date
   Evidence per activity, owner, folder, claim target [confirmed date]

Planning timeline

Because neither vendor publishes deadlines, run an internal timeline and replace each row with the dates your partner manager confirms.

Worked example

Illustrative example: a hypothetical data consultancy that is Silver in Databricks and Select in Snowflake. No figure below is a vendor allocation.

1. Split the motions. Databricks campaign: GenAI use case discovery for mid-market insurers with no Databricks footprint, aimed at the Source stage. Snowflake campaign: data platform modernization for existing Snowflake customers in retail, aimed at service registrations.
2. Accounts. 120 insurers and 80 retailers, pulled from partner account lists.
3. Ask. Eight questions to each partner manager. Databricks confirms whether Silver proposal-based MDF is open this quarter; Snowflake confirms which fund applies at Select.
4. Budget. Suppose each campaign has $30,000 in third-party costs. The request is whatever share each manager confirms, and no invoice appears in both claims.
5. Run. Databricks: executive roundtable, ABM ads, outbound to data leaders. Snowflake: joint webinar with a customer story, outbound to platform owners.
6. Measure. Use cases submitted and meetings for Databricks; service and deal registrations and meetings for Snowflake.

The registrations are the part partners forget. They are the evidence both vendors use for tiers and incentives.

Common rejection reasons

Neither vendor publishes rejection reasons. These are the failure points common across partner fund programs:

• No link to a vendor priority, use case or consumption outcome.
• No deal, service or use case registration behind the campaign.
• Spend committed before written approval.
• Asking for Platinum-style co-investment from a Silver or Select position.
• One campaign and one invoice pitched to both vendors.
• Brand or logo usage outside vendor guidelines.
• Reporting reach with no meetings or pipeline.

Where an agency fits

Data consultancies are usually strong on delivery and thin on marketing staff. An agency should bring the account list, the proposal draft, execution, proof packs and pipeline reporting, with invoices split so each vendor claim stands alone.

If you run both ecosystems, keep separate campaign names, UTM parameters and CRM campaign records per vendor. That keeps registrations, meetings and pipeline attributable to the right program, and it stops a combined quarterly report from looking like the same spend was claimed twice.

See our Snowflake partners and Databricks partners pages for campaign angles, events and webinars for roundtable programs, and AEO for data consulting firms for getting cited when buyers ask AI tools for implementation partners.

What to do this week

1. Log in to each portal and write down tier, certifications and open registrations.
2. For Snowflake, read the November 2 program enhancements in the SPN portal and start your team on the CoCo Foundational Accreditation.
3. Send the eight-question email to each partner manager.
4. Pick one use case per vendor and draft the proposal template.
5. Build the named account list and the proof folder.
6. File any registrations you have been sitting on.

Confidence notes

Working other ecosystems too? Compare the Microsoft MDF guide, AWS MDF guide, ServiceNow MDF, the Salesforce Partner Fund guide and SAP development funds.