You need to talk about monetization, not donations. And what, you, personally find inviting isn't that important. What's important is what works.

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.