Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to draw lessons for developing community-university partnerships from experiences in promoting coastal education for sustainable development (ESD). Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data collected from two coastal community outreach projects were analyzed. Findings: The outreach projects improved the relationship between university and community members. It is important to conduct interviews at the early stages of the projects to understand the needs of the community and set project outcomes to meet community-defined priorities. The most effective means for promoting an ESD program based upon community-university partnerships is to reach out to and network with local individuals who have been active in community projects and embed the program concept into the activities of those individuals. Mediators who link the academic community with the local community are helpful in promoting the partnerships, and university students were found to be successful mediators. Originality/value: On the basis of the experiences gained from starting an ESD program in the community, this research provides some clues to initiate service learning or community-based research based upon community-university partnerships. (Contains 3 figures.)