I wouldn't use the term donate because that's technically incorrect. If you donate to the site, such as the $25 for DF access, you don't get star value. Buying fg gets you stars, or trading fg for star value gets you stars.
The $25 you donate for donor forums access does indeed affect your stars value.
thank you, is it safe to assume these people are more trust worthy when doing trades?
( got a guy dming me for an item in a game but refuses to comment on my post )
People will sometimes create their own basis for trust, such as post count, join date, amount of forum gold, etc, but the safest way to trade is to use a mediator. It’s fast and it’s free