Based on the perspective of institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study examines the relationship between leverage and the amount of corporate donation. Also, we explore whether this relation is influenced by institutional environment. Using empirical data from China, a typical emerging market, we find that for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), there is a negative relationship between leverage and donation amount, while this association turns to positive for non-SOEs. We suggest this difference is caused by China’s institutional environment. Since non-SOEs are lack of endorsement, they are more likely to do corporate philanthropy to build a close link with the government, while SOEs needn’t do this because they can get enough support from the government even they don’t do corporate philanthropy. This result indicates that institutional environment makes the strategy of corporate philanthropy of SOEs different from the behavior pattern of non-SOEs