This interactive session explores the role that contracts, MOUs, and partnership agreements can play in fostering collaborations between community engagement centers and academic partners (e.g. faculty, schools, and campus units). Using case studies from the University of Michigan, we highlight the potential for formal and informal contracts to enhance service delivery, mitigate conflict and delays, and support measurable progress toward shared goals that build the capacity for and quality of community impact. Participants will learn how partnership agreement structures help Ginsberg Center staff translate and curate the support provided to academic partners to better manage staff capacity in relation to Center mission and strategy. Participants will discuss and apply Ginsberg’s framework to draft ideas for their own agreement structures.