Collaboration with the educational systems is needed to leverage the community to address the problem of declining interest in science education among young people, yet building effective university-community partnerships is a highly complex process. This research investigated partnership building in a regional science initiative designed to encourage and develop relationships between academic experts, scientists, engineers, and community. The study goals were to evaluate (1) the organizational structures that enable operation of a multi-organizational regional partnership; (2) the members' perceptions of the common goals benefits and costs of participation in the partnership. Using the sequential mixed-method approach, 60 interviews conducted in the first phase were used to develop a questionnaire to which 224 partners responded. The research results provided a comprehensive evaluation of the university-community partnership. The results also demonstrated the effectiveness of a scale employed defining four hierarchical levels of partnership for assessing the development of any partnership over time.