Our Fundraising Programme 
It costs £500,000 per year to run our services and for the upcoming financial year (2013-2014) we are predicting a £95,000 deficit! To bridge this gap and avoid having to reduce our services, we have an extensive fundraising programme planned. This last year we have held curry evenings, a Sing for SoLO concert, plus various opportunities for stalls supporting local events – selling scrumptious SoLO cakes! It all helps! Our main adrenalin rush was the ZipnZumba event at Heart Park in June and a wonderful musical evening with the Morriston Orpheus Choir in September which was followed by the amazing Snow Ball in December – the highlight of the social calendar! Ongoing schemes such as Peel2Save also bring in the pennies.
With grateful thanks as always to all those who support us for these occasions – in whatever way that you do so! We are indebted also to the wonderful people who donate and support us either individually or as a company or organisation. We are indebted to John Lewis for their support of the Fire Station furnishings and to Solihull Chamber of Commerce for making us their fundraising partner for this year. We are also working with Secure Trust Bank who are participating in the London Night Ride on our behalf and doing lots of mad things throughout this year – for which we are most grateful!
Click on the link below to see the range of events we are involved in!
Fundraising Calendar 2013
Upcoming Events
Sunday 2nd June: Vintage Fair – Meadows Function Suite (near Solihull Ice Rink): admission £1 in aid of SoLO – and we will be doing Vintage Teas as well! Come along and bag a bargain whilst sipping tea out of vintage china – what could be better! Proceeds to SoLO – win/win!
Sunday 16th June: Dorridge & St Philip’s Fun Run & Walk
SoLO is delighted to be one of the benefitting charities again this year and we are looking forward to another great day out!
We are looking for individual walkers/runners/cyclists. Go at your own pace and have a great time on the stalls as well!
Sign up now on the Fun Run website for your entry at: http://www.dorridgefunrun.org/
Sunday 15th September: Whistle Stop Fun Day at Illshaw Heath! 
A chance for all the family to have a wonderful time, with the great SoLO bake off, Fancy Dress, Refreshments, Entertainment – and Train Rides to boot!
Saturday 16th November: 
The main social event of the year! The SoLO Sky Ball at the Motorcycle Museum. Tables going fast! £45 earlybird booking gets you a guaranteed place. Email m.brown@solihullsolo.org now to reserve your booking!
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Update on recent fundraising events
Saturday 18th May: Collectors Fair at the Meadows Function Suite: We raised over £160 by door takings and refreshments – thanks to all who supported!
Saturday 27th April: Charity Promises Auction re Dorridge Fun Run – a fabulous evening whetting the appetite for the Fun Run
Monday 15th April: Curry at the B26: Another brilliant night at the B26 – we raised £482.35 and had a wonderful time with a full restaurant!
Saturday 23rd February – Knowle Male Voice Choir Concert: raised over £800! Huge thanks to all who supported and to the Choir, the Handbell Ringers and Wlod for their wonderful music-making!
Saturday 1st December – SoLO Snow Ball: what can we say – you came, you danced, you dined, you had great fun with the Snowball challenge, you entered into the spirit of the auctions and raffle – you were brilliant and you helped us to raise the magnificent sum of £8,500. This is the best yet! Huge thanks to all who supported in any way, before, during and after!
Solihull Gang Show – November/December 2012: We are delighted to have been chosen as the benefitting charity for this year’s Gang Show – and next! It was totally amazing and they raised £905 for SoLO – awesome! We look forward to continue to work with them!
Saturday 29th September – Morriston Orpheus came to the Arts Complex and they were brilliant! A wonderful evening of music and song and we raised over £1000 plus a lot of goodwill!
Sunday 2nd September – Hockley Heath Fair: The red gazebo was out again and we raised £128. Thanks to all our wonderful cake bakers and those who supported on the day.
Sunday 16th September – Dorridge Day: Despite a very slow day, we raised £109 with many thanks to all our wonderful cake bakers!
ZipnZumba 24.6.12: what a busy few weeks! Despite the windy and rainy start, the sun came out, the drummers drummed, the zumbathon kicked off and Nick Owen and Blind Dave Heeley got us off to a good start on the zip wire! We hope to raise £3000!
Dorridge Fun Run 17.6.12: Intrepid cyclists and walkers donned SoLO T-shirts to raise funds for SoLO. As we are also one of the main charities the event was supporting, watch this space to see how we do!
Shirley Donkey Derby 19.5.12: Anoher opportunity to raise SoLO’s profile and sell luscious cakes – they keep coming back for more! Over £180 was raised on a dismal day so we did well!
Wren Hall Teas 8.4.12: SoLO went out into the country and had a great afternoon selling tea and cakes, making over £300. One to be repeated!
Curry Evening at B26 26.3.12: a brilliant evening – and celebrated two birthdays at the same time! What could be nicer!
Sing for SoLO at Dorridge Methodist Church 9.3.12: a wonderful evening, a real showcase for SoLO and huge thanks to everyone who made it happen. We hope to have raised nearly £1000 by the time the dvds are out!
M&S Bag Pack 23.12.11: with thanks to our intrepid local police officers who raised a team of volunteers, plus some SoLO volunteers, we were able to raise over £1000 on the Friday before Christmas – fantastic result!!
Curry Evening 22.11.11: We had a very good evening at The Mint in Yardley and raised £230 . Thanks to all who supported by being there – and to those of you who also contributed even if you weren’t!! Watch this space for the next one…………………………
Starlight Ball, 15.10.11: we certainly had a ball and thanks to everyone’s generosity we raised over £4000 – which is brilliant!!
Hot Coals Challenge June 2011: “The shortest sponsored walk ever!” And it raised upwards of £5000. Thanks so much to everyone who took part on a very wet evening!
Just Giving
Just Giving is an online facility through which you can donate money and they will take care of collecting the Gift Aid from the tax man. It’s easy, secure and takes just a couple of minutes. Go to SoLO at JustGiving
TLC Lottery
TLC Lottery
You could support SoLO and win money for yourself as well! Log onto www.tlclottery.co.uk and register for tickets. Make sure that you nominate SoLO as the beneficiary.
SoLO Merchandise
If you would like to support SoLO whilst you shop, why not check out our Merchandise section.
SoLO Ball – The Premier Event in Solihull’s Social Calendar
Our highly successful balls which have raised over £25,000 – how fabulous is that!
Any Ideas?
If you have any ideas for fundraising or would like to join our fund raising team,
please give us a call. We would be delighted to hear from you.