This article addresses ways in which the scaling strategies of two Dutch non-profit organisations (NPOs) impact their pathways to social enterprise development. The NPOs under investigation seek to address the intertwined issues of hunger, food waste and environmental protection. Comparing and contrasting the two cases, the article discusses the strategies conducive to social enterprise development and the obstacles encountered. Underlying this analysis is a mixed embeddedness perspective which revolves around organisational structure in tandem with institutional pressures affecting the outcome of scaling strategies. So doing, this article makes a contribution to the burgeoning literature on impact scaling, in particular the significance of scaling strategies in the transition of NPOs to social enterprise.