It warned in February that its dire financial position could have it closed in weeks, but the Queenstown Lakes Family Centre's general manager remains hopeful funding for the establishment will be found.
The centre has so far survived and general manager Ilona Weekley is tentatively hopeful it can ''pull through''.
In the short term, her hopes are pinned on a black-tie dinner on May 25 at which New Zealand musical trio Anika, Boh and Hollie will perform.
''We approached them for some signed CDs and then got an email back saying it's their first weekend off since coming together and they may be able to do something more than that,'' Ms Weekley said.
The centre provides free support to about 280 families annually in the form of counselling, family therapy, home-based support and community clinics, as a means of preventive intervention.
Ms Weekley was brought in last year to replace the centre's co-founder, Meg Bryant, who moved away from the Wakatipu. When the Queenstown Times spoke to the pair at the time of Mrs Bryant's departure, the former general manager said funding remained the biggest issue. The centre relies on donations and grants and the latter becoming harder to get as organisations vie for funding in a harsher financial climate. The Christchurch earthquakes had delivered a false sense of hope, as they had generated a ''significant amount of work in our area of expertise'' and the accompanying funding from the Government was one-off.
With the centre facing a financial crisis, its business plan was changed to a sustainable financial model but ''the impact hit us faster than we had planned''.
''The [financial] climate is so that the Government is quite keen for the smaller NGOs [non-governmental organisations] to look at whether they are long-term sustainable, and there has been a number of mergers.''
When asked whether the centre would consider a merger, Ms Weekley said, ''At the moment, it's quite difficult because we are not really aligned with any national groups.''
The centre employs only trained clinicians, whereas other organisations may have volunteers in their work force.
While it is accepted that intervention is a valuable tool to prevent much more serious cases where hospital therapy is then required, the question of how to fund organisations such as the centre remains unanswered when the Government's focus is inevitably on the high-end cases.
With so little funding, the centre faces a dilemma over whether to raise its profile - because some people are unclear about its services and purpose - and, possibly, be faced with an influx of people wanting help, Ms Weekley said.
She said there was a fear the service would not have the capacity, but conversely, the information ''actually allows us to go to the funders and say this is how many people are waiting to see us''.
''What we do know is, with population growth, we are going to see more need for this type of service, particularly with this city culture.''
Ms Weekley said the centre was one of the beneficiaries of a charity run held on Sunday and was waiting to hear how much was raised.
When the fundraising was started, Ms Weekley said there was a risk that people would not respond.
But ''what I have been blown away by is the amount of feedback that we have had and people reaffirming that we are needed''.
Aside from the threat of closure, the financial position had forced positive change, Ms Weekley said.
''When there's money, there's no reason to change and you run the risk of creating huge amounts of waste ... [we have been] looking at how we work and how we can reach more children with less money.''
• Tickets for the Black Tie Charity Dinner and Auction at Stoneridge Estate are $170 and can be bought by calling the Queenstown Lakes Family Centre on (03) 441-4331.
