The literature on the effect of corporate philanthropy (CP) on employee outcomes is inconsistent and inconclusive. Drawing on resource-based view and social identity theory, we examined the curvilinear relationship between CP and employee performance through a sample of 592 employees in China. The results showed that CP had an S-shaped effect on employee performance. In other words, corporate philanthropy, either in an amount too small or too large beyond a threshold, will not improve employee performance. Furthermore, we also found that the S-shaped relationship was moderated by employee benevolent attribution. Implications for research and practice, research limitations, and future research directions are discussed subsequently.