Where Does the Money Come From?

Some people wonder about where the money comes from for Falun Gong activities. They often ask us how we are able to print materials to clarify the truth, hold activities, and host big events. They wonder, "Where does the money come from to cover your expenses?" Then, not knowing the facts, they wrongly speculate that Falun Gong must have political supporters or donors. In fact, nobody has been able to provide evidence to support this conclusion because it doesn't exist. Sometimes people speculate in this manner because they are led to these thoughts after being directly or indirectly influenced by Jiang's propaganda, which claims that "Falun Gong has political intentions" or "Falun Gong is behind political parties opposing the Party leadership."

The following two stories about some Falun Gong practitioners may answer these questions for those who are puzzling over where the money comes from.

In the first story, Falun Gong practitioners wanted to rent a high quality conference hall to hold a Falun Gong experience sharing conference. When it was time to pay the rental fee, a practitioner took out from his pocket over forty personal checks of varying amounts and from different banks and handed them over to the manager. The manager asked, "Could you write me one check instead of giving me so many?" The practitioner answered with a little embarrassment, "I'm sorry. The checks are from different practitioners' personal donations. We have to share the cost to cover the rental fee."

In the second story, Falun Gong practitioners were handing out materials that clarified the facts of the persecution in various Chinatowns every day of the year over several years in order to help the public learn the truth about the situation of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The owner of a nearby shop often mocked a female practitioner who was always seen giving out the information materials by saying, "How much money are you paid to work so hard for the one who takes advantage of you?" The lady just responded to him with a smile without saying anything. At last her son, who brought her to Chinatown every day could not bear listening to this man's mockery any longer and asked the owner, "Could you find me a few people? I will pay them to give out the materials. But I have one request: they have to work as hard as my mother. No matter how windy, how rainy, how heavy it snows, or how low the temperature is below zero, or how high the temperature, they have to do the same thing every day just like my mother." The owner became silent and never spoke rudely again.

These two stories are very representative. They demonstrate two facts.

1. Falun Gong practitioners, of their own free will, have paid every cent for all the Falun Gong activities they have held. Nobody has coerced them to do so. There is never any request for donations asked for among the practitioners. All the Falun Gong activity fees are paid by practitioners from their own earnings and paid voluntarily. We never receive any money from any government or any group.

2. Falun Gong is practised by many practitioners, from many different social classes, age groups, and races. Is it likely that so many practitioners could be easily controlled by somebody and do whatever was asked for money? In fact, all the practitioners are very rational. Everything they do is scrupulously examined against the teachings of Falun Dafa and by their own rational thinking, too. The real power driving Falun Gong practitioners is not any person, any group, or any government, but their righteous thoughts and righteous understanding of the universal principles, Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Their faith is not some dogma taught by somebody else; it is developed after pondering the teachings of Falun Dafa very rationally, and practising the teaching diligently day after day. It is because they hold such strong righteous faith that they have had the strength to endure the last arduous five years.