How would you describe it if not using the word "donations" then?
There are lots of different ways to talk about this.
I straight up had someone tell me I was "panhandling the internet" to have donate buttons on my site when I was homeless. At that time, people would give me money and leave notes "Here, have something to eat." They very clearly did not see it as paying me for the value of my work. It was charity in their eyes.
All that stopped when I switched to a tip jar and my take went up.
YMMV, of course. But it ended up being an informative experiment.
I like having Patreon plus a tip jar. Patreon is for on going support. A tip jar lets people leave a one time payment.