New chairwoman Sandy Wallace has confirmed the association owed its creditors between $40,000 and $50,000, although she did not give an exact figure.
That was up on the figure of more than $35,000 it reported it owed at its annual general meeting.
Wallace had not been able to give an exact number at the time, having only taken over the role at the meeting.
Alongside that, one of its three major creditors, former development manager Doug Hill, finished his employment with the association on Wednesday.
The decision to leave had turned out to be mutual, following several months of the association not being able to pay Hill.
While the new executive had decided to make the position redundant in its first meeting on Tuesday, Hill had also secured a new job — which he starts on Monday — at the same time.
Wallace said the association was grateful to Hill for his patience and for his commitment to helping the sport on a voluntary basis.
Its other major creditors were Softball New Zealand and the Dunedin City Council.
An emergency meeting would be held with the clubs on Tuesday, after which Wallace would be able to reveal more plans. A Give A Little page had been started as the first fundraising effort and Wallace was pleased with its progress after five days.
As of yesterday it had attracted $1485, with a first target of $5000 in mind.
"A few ex-members have come out of the woodwork and kindly donated some funds, which is vitally needed.
"But we need to encourage everybody. Even if the people that it’s reached on Facebook — 5000 people — if they all donated $1 it would be a great start."
A fundraising tournament was planned for Labour weekend.
Games played across all three days, along with hopes some Black Sox and White Sox players may run an under-15 training clinic on the Saturday morning.Wallace said Softball New Zealand and Sport Otago were both supporting the association.
While she would not provide exact details, she said they would be able to help secure more money, rather than donating it directly.
"Financially they can’t help.
"But they can be mentors; they can help support any functions that we have; they can help give us some leads, hopefully, or some support with funding going forward — all those sorts of things.
"[In] monetary terms they can’t help, but they’re there as support for us in any way that we’re asking them for."
Both were in communication with her daily and she said the main other party to get in support now was the clubs.
Fourteen new chairmen of subcommittees had been appointed and were working on various areas, including finances and sponsorship.
Wallace said the response from the softball community had been a positive one.
While many older members had been surprised to learn of the struggles, they were fighting and wanted it to survive so the youth could continue to play the sport.
