Broughty Ferry YMCA will survive for three years but not much more if the local community does not back the organisation.
That was the bleak warning at a public meeting on Thursday aimed at making the group financially viable again.
Around 40 people attended the meeting at the Brook Street site, canvassing for ideas to help capture the public’s imagination.
A loss of £10,000 was reported in the last financial year, with a similar figure expected to be posted again this year.
Warning that current funding levels could only guarantee another three years of activity, Jeanette Third of YMCA Scotland said, “We need new blood and fresh ideas.
“We will go on until the money goes but we need a way to move forward.”
She added, “We will go on fighting to keep this place going and make it viable.”
Having received no local authority funding since 2005, the organisation is heavily dependent on donations.
Although stressing that there was no imminent threat of closure, Ms Third admitted that producing a long-term strategy to improve the building and attract new faces is an arduous task.
She said, “This is not the last meeting of the Broughty Ferry YMCA. We will listen to ideas.”
The YMCA has been at the heart of the community since 1866 and hosts charity coffee mornings, karate clubs, art exhibitions and teenage discos.
However, the small band of dedicated volunteers who have been keeping the enterprise going have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of support from the community, and recently issued a “use it or lose” ultimatum.