Studies of practices in new product and service development have focused predomi-nantly on for-profit organizations, whereas attention to the nonprofit sector has beenminimal. Such attention is needed given that nonprofit organizations are unique in theirstructures and are growing with regards to impact on the world economy and society ingeneral. Moreover, such disparate attention suggests a void in this discipline’s under-standing of new product development (NPD) practices of nonprofit organizations. Twoparticular research questions are posed: (1) To what extent are the practices of for-profit organizations employed in nonprofit organizations? (2) How do the practices ofnonprofits compare to those of for-profit organizations? In the course of answeringthese questions, the present study reviewed literature and the Product Development andManagement Association (PDMA) certification work. The study subsequently iden-tified six dimensions of successful NPD efforts: strategy, portfolio management, proc-ess, market research, people, and metrics and performance measurement. Thesedimensions were applied via an in-depth case-study methodology to six large, U.S.nonprofit organizations: American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), AmericanCancer Society, American Heart Association, American Red Cross, Boys and GirlsClub of America, and Goodwill Industries. The dimensions assisted in categorizing andanalyzing the responses of 40 respondents across the six organizations. Results showthat some NPD practices of large nonprofit organizations are similar to for-profit or-ganizations, but other practices are more distinctive and related to the nature of non-profit organizations. Large nonprofit organizations tend to be very good at articulatingtheir mission, embedding it throughout, and using it to drive programs and activities.These organizations tend to view product development as a tactical endeavor versus astrategic one and do not engage in portfolio management practices for their new pro-grams. Instead, broad criteria such as fit with mission, funding availability, and pres-ence of a champion are used for evaluating programs. The NPD process tends to beinformal with little structure, and individual departments and local chapters tend toundertake their own NPD initiatives and have their own process for doing so. Non-profits place a heavy emphasis on ideation and less emphasis on other activities such asconcept development and testing, project evaluation, and business analysis. Pilot testingis the most used type of market research. These results suggest that NPD processeswithin large nonprofit organizations share some of the same weaknesses as those of for-profit organizations, with NPD metrics being a particularly weak area. The NPDpractices of nonprofits also have some unique characteristics that include the following:a heavy emphasis on the mission, a desire for flexibility, strong influence of externalsponsors, and difficulty in assessing long-term program success. Management of non-profit NPD and directions for future research are discussed.