Although it is viewed as an important approach to enhancing the professionalism and efficiency of community service center operation，in practice，unanimity has not been reached with regards to the understanding of how to operate community service centers by projects. This paper takes the practice in Shenzhen as an example and discusses the essence of and the approach to operating community service centers by projects. It points out that operating community service centers by projects refers to the mode of management and operation where community service center operators，with limited resources，provide professional social services and promote community development by developing and implementing not-for-profit projects aimed at solving social problems. It can be carried out in three stages：first，from activities to projects where individual community service centers independently develop and implement the projects；second，from projects to organizations where efforts are made to enable projects organized by community service centers to take root in the communities；third，promote the projects as brands，namely to turn the projects in one community service center into institutional brands and promote them to other community centers.