This paper aims to provide an historical perspective on the development of higher education's 'third mission' of social engagement. I explore how practices and structures of 'social engagement' emerged in the Israeli higher education field in the 1970s and early 1980s. Drawing on archival research in three universities' historical archives, and on the theoretical lens of neo-institutional theory, I explore the origins and emergence of social engagement as a proto-institution, that is, an institution in the making. My analysis suggests that the current dominant model of engagement in the Israeli field, based on one-on-one tutoring for scholarships, has come to marginalize other initiatives that were based on principles of social action. I show how the emergence of a new proto-institution in an established field is shaped by processes of institutional work, through which actors create, maintain and disrupt institutions.