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Government contracting with nonprofit organizations in service delivery has become a widespread practice in the public administration landscape. This research explores what kinds of nonprofits are more likely to receive government funding for service delivery. Viewing nonprofits’ pursuit of government funding as an interorganizational effort, we examine the contextual and organizational factors that influence nonprofits’ receipt of government funding. Using the data collected from a nationwide survey of Chinese nonprofits, we find a close contractual relationship between government and nonprofits. Further analysis suggests that policy advocacy, board co-optation, external competition, and organizational formalization have positive impacts on leveraging government funding, while interorganizational collaboration and organizational professionalization do not appear to play a significant role. To our knowledge, this study represents the first nationwide survey research on government–nonprofit contracting in China. The findings expand the literature by adding new empirical evidence from an authoritarian context. Points for practitionersThis study examines the contextual and organizational factors affecting Chinese nonprofit organizations’ receipt of purchase-of-service contracts from government. The results indicate that nonprofit organizations engaging in more policy advocacy activities, having more people with government working experience on governing boards, facing stronger competition in resource acquisition and service delivery from operating environments, and embracing more formal structures and procedures in organizational operations would receive more government contracts.