Giving Friday: charity instead of promotions, dm donates 42 million forints

The huge promotions of Black Friday do not suit dm, as they do not offer discounts in stores on other days of the year either, and the drugstore has been working with a permanent price strategy called “Always worth it” for years. The point of this is that prices do not increase for four months, thus offering predictability to customers.  Black Friday has now become a symbol of unjustified overconsumption, which is why the concept and message of this day were consciously transformed.

Six years ago, dm decided to change the color of Black Friday and, instead of promotions, donate 5 percent of its total turnover that day to support social causes at the beginning of the holiday season. Since 2019, they have already helped social and environmental causes with more than 140 million forints in this form. 

With this year’s Giving Friday initiative, a donation of 42,259,583 forints will be donated to charitable causes, which dm will offer to projects that strengthen social responsibility. The supported civil organizations will be selected through a tender next year and will be presented in detail in the fall of 2026.

The drugstore also puts human relationships at the center of its communication activities during the Advent period, and on Giving Friday it also draws attention to the importance of looking out for others. Those who would otherwise shop at dm on this day will contribute to a socially beneficial cause.

Supported programs respond to social and environmental challenges

In recent years, dm has also embraced social and environmental issues with the Giving Friday initiative.  Last year, for example, the 37 million forint donation went to the WWF Hungary habitat rehabilitation project, which is being implemented in the Pély Bird Reserve on an area of ​​5.5 hectares. In 2023, more than 30 million forints were donated to the Mentor Seedlings program, a joint contemporary education project of the Hungarian Dietitians’ National Association and the Responsible Gastroenterology Foundation, to develop healthy and sustainable eating habits in children. In 2022, the Ecological Agricultural Research Institute (ÖMKi) and the Green Circle Association supported the project with 18.5 million forints, during which ÖMKi launched a series of regular plant protection calls and showed how to protect plants without chemicals, all of which was complemented by a community research project. In 2021, following the coronavirus epidemic, the dm donated nearly 20 million forints to the Blue Line Childhood Crisis Foundation to launch a joint campaign to preserve the mental health of young people. In 2020, the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service delivered gift packages to residents of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic with the help of a donation of more than 17 million forints from the dm, and in 2019, Catholic Caritas provided support to families in need with a donation of 17 million forints on Giving Friday.