“Enq: But all this literature, to the spread of which you attach so much importance, does not seem to me of much practical use in helping mankind. This is not practical charity.
Theo: We think otherwise. We hold that a good book which gives people food for thought, which strengthens and clears their minds, and enables them to grasp truths which they have dimly felt but could not formulate – we hold that such a book does a real, substantial good.
As to what you call practical deeds of charity, to benefit the bodies of our fellow-men, we do what little we can; but as I have already told you, most of us are poor, whilst the Society itself has not even the money to pay a staff or workers.
All of us who toil for it, give our labor gratis, and in most cases money as well. The few who have the means of doing what are usually called charitable actions, follow the Buddhist precepts and do their work themselves, not by proxy or by subscribing publicly to charitable funds. What the Theosophist has to do above all is forget his personality.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 