Learning through community engagement (CE) is widely considered a high-impact practice with the potential benefit of accelerated cognitive development, deeper learning and moral reasoning compared to traditional classroom approaches. However, not all efforts of community engagement are alike. We see insufficient distinction in articles on community-engaged learning to enable faculty to design an experience of CE learning that meets their learning aims and are experienced as successful by all participants. To serve faculty members’ ability to establish successful CE experiences, we propose a framework to differentiate the forms of CE and their associated features. This paper makes clear the differences in forms of CE using two primary axes, the compatibility with learning objectives and the scope of shared societal commitments between the collaborators. Within this framework, there are four types or forms of CE, each with different consequences for the students, the faculty, and the community partners. Through narratives of project partners, faculty and students, we contrast the experiences of two types of CE projects and their impact on participants. From this two-year case study involving 88 freshmen, 16 faculty members and 15 community partners, we conclude that successful CE learning requires that all participants have an awareness of the type of CE project that is intended. This paper implies that appropriate choices in the initial phases of creating the community-engaged collaboration are critical to a result that satisfies the participants.