"Our organization does good work with the money we have."
"We could do more good work, or better work, with more money."
"Therefore investments/endowments we receive should be invested inwards, to increase the amount of money we have available with which to do good work."
You can see, of course, how this kind of cycle could become more about the money than the good work.
"This transaction will put that bigger mission on a solid footing — so that the Internet Society can provide much more substantive help to nonprofits than merely leasing domain names, and with more continuity over time. While it's true that running .org provided a relatively steady income stream, it effectively staked most of our revenue on a single business, and required a certain amount of our resources to be spent managing that business, distracting from the broader mission. Especially as PIR has grown over time, this situation has become increasingly untenable. Establishing a more diverse portfolio of investments will allow us to have more predictable revenue over time, and to take a longer-range perspective when it comes to achieving our mission. "
http://www.arrl.org/news/millions-of-amprnet-internet-addres...