“Enq: But why could not both she and Colonel Olcott do as others – notably many Theosophists – do: follow out their respective professions and devote the surplus of their time to the work of the Society?
Theo: Because by serving two masters, either the professional or the philanthropic work would have had to suffer. Every true Theosophist is morally bound to sacrifice the personal to the impersonal, his own present good to the future benefit of other people. If the Founders do not set the example, who will?
Enq: And are there many who follow it?
Theo: I am bound to answer you the truth. In Europe about half-a-dozen in all, out of more than that number of Branches.
Enq: Then it is not true that the Theosophical Society has a large capital or endowment of its own?
Theo: It is false, for it has none at all. Now that the entrance fee of £1 and the small annual due have been abolished, it is even a doubtful question whether the staff at the headquarters in India will not soon be starved to death.
Enq: Then why not raise subscriptions?
Theo: We are not the Salvation Army; we cannot and have never begged; nor have we ever followed the example of the Churches and sects and “taken up collections.” That which is occasionally sent for the support of the Society, the small sums contributed by some devoted Fellows, are all voluntary donations.
Enq: But I have heard of large sums of money given to Mdme. Blavatsky. It was said four years ago that she got £5000 from one rich, young “Fellow”, who went out to join them in India, and £10,000 from another wealthy and well-known American gentleman, one of your members who died in Europe four years ago.
Theo: Say to those who told you this, that they either themselves utter, or repeat, a gross falsehood. Never has “Madame Blavatsky” asked or received ONE PENNY from the two above-named gentlemen, nor anything like that from anyone else, since the Theosophical Society was founded.
Let any man living try to substantiate this calumny, and it will be easier for him to prove that the Bank of England is a bankrupt than that the said “Founder” has ever made any money out of Theosophy.
These two calumnies have been started by two high-born ladies, belonging to the London aristocracy, and have been immediately traced and disproved. They are the dead bodies, the carcasses of two inventions, which, after having been buried in the sea of oblivion, are once more raised on the surface of the stagnant waters of slander.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 