“Enq: Agreed. Well, have either of the Founders, Colonel H. S. Olcott or H. P. Blavatsky, ever made any money, profit, or derived any worldly benefit from the T.S, as some papers say?
Theo: Not one penny. The papers lie. On the contrary, they have both given all they had, and literally beggared themselves. As for “worldly benefits”, think of the calumnies and vilification they have been subjected to, and then ask the question!
Enq: Yet I have read in a good many missionary organs that the entrance fees and subscriptions much more than covered all expenses; and one said that the Founders were making twenty thousand pound a year!
Theo: This is a fib, like many others. In the published accounts of January, 1889, you will find an exact statement of all the money ever received from any source since 1879. The total received from all sources (entrance fees, donations, etc., etc.) during these ten years is under six thousand pounds, and of this a large part was contributed by the Founders themselves from the proceeds of their private resources and their literary work.
All this has been openly and officially admitted, even by our enemies, the Psychic Research Society. And now both the Founders are penniless: one, too old and ill to work as she did before, unable to spare time for outside literary work to help the Society in money, can only write for the Theosophical cause; the other keeps labouring for it is as before, and receives as little thanks for it.
Enq: But surely they need money to live?
Theo: Not at all. So long as They have food and lodging, even though they owe it to the devotion of a few friends, they need little more.
Enq: But could not Madame Blavatsky, especially, make more than enough to live upon by her writings?
Theo: When in India she received on the average some thousand rupees a year for articles contributed to Russian and other papers, but gave it all away to the Society.
Enq: Political articles?
Theo: Never. Everything she has written throughout the seven years of her stay in India is all there in print. It deals only with the religions, ethnology, and customs of India, and with Theosophy – never with politics, of which she knows nothing and cares less.
Again, two years ago she refused several contracts amounting together to about 1,200 roubles in gold per month; for she could not accept them without abandoning her work for the Society, which needed all her time and strength. She has documents to prove it.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 