This paper investigates the impact of charitable donation on the corporate value and its mechanism based on the data collected from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008 to 2020.The results indicate that charitable contributions have a beneficial effect on the corporate value and that the effect varies depending upon the nature of property rights and industry competition. For instance, the value-enhancing effect of charitable donations in the state-owned enterprises is not as significant as that in the non-state-owned enterprises. However, in a highly competitive industry, charitable donations can promote the improvement of corporate value; technological innovation plays a part of the intermediary role in the process of charitable donations to enhance corporate value; financing constraints negatively moderate the value-creating effect of charitable donations. Accordingly enterprises should actively fufill their social responsibilities, drive high-quality development through innovation, and flexibly adjust the financing methods and scales according to actual conditions, so that donation decisions can achieve expected results; the government should focus on the nature of property rights and industry competition to solve the problem of corporate innovation and development, strengthen cooperation and exchanges with enterprises, and guide them to develop towards “specialized and innovative” enterprises.