Picture a hand letting go on purpose: notes dropped into a collection box, a bag of coats handed over at the door, a name signed so that a school can have the books. Two things are always true — nobody paid you for it, and nobody is expected to give it back — and the thing goes to someone or something that needs it. That deliberate, one-way release can be held as the picture inside 'donate'. Because the giving is the point, the word carries a formal, public feeling: it belongs to charities, hospitals and campaigns rather than to passing a snack to a friend.