Mr Stoneman said the trust had finished all the events on its calendar, the last one being the Artists Open Studios, and was now reconsidering "all the ways we are doing things and the way we are receiving funds".
"Basically we haven't had a major sponsor for the Master Games for about five years now.
"So our cash reserves that we made when we did have major sponsors have been getting depleted each year.
"It's time for us now to reconsider how we move forward.
"The Masters Games is obviously the key one we're looking after so that's the 30th [anniversary] in 2019.
"We want to reformat things and make sure we have a major sponsor.
"ACC was fantastic when we had them as a sponsor. It would be great to get them back on board.
"We need a secure sponsor for somewhere between three to five years."
He said as well as its chief executive the trust had let go four other staff.
"Kathy will be looking for new ventures. The events that she's been involved with everyone's been really rapped with the way she's worked with them. I think she'll have no problem getting work with some of them."
Asked if the trust was now looking to hire a new chief executive Mr Stoneman said they would need to secure funding first.
"That's a long way down the track. We're looking at getting the structural side of it sorted so a CEO will be a long way down the track before we're looking for the right mix with our trust.
"We've really got to secure the funding before we look at staff.
"All the trustees are volunteers. The trustees have been really good. We've even got David Bryce from Auckland who flies down every month for our meetings.
"We've been exceptionally lucky to have such good trustees.
"The bottom line is we can't work with nothing.
"If all events could make money that would be great.
"But movie night was $10 and when we did the fireworks for the stock cars we basically put money in there - we didn't make money on those but that wasn't the point of those events.
"It was actually about having the community there.
"We'll be working closely with council to make sure we can get involved with how we restructure moving forward.
"We're in no danger of losing the masters.
"Let's put it this way. The council own 49 per cent of it, we own 51 per cent of it. I don't think the council is going to say they don't want about $6 million in revenue. They'll say they want to keep that."
The Whanganui Events Trust is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to promote and develop events in and around Whanganui.
Its mission: "We manage events and create memories for the people who participate. We know how to turn an event experience into an addiction."
The Whanganui Events Trust is registered with the Charities Commission.