No, it isn't linked to donations. It has to do with your length of membership, number of posts, and number of "likes".
1000+ Posts and 1+ years' membership and 15+ recent likes
or
200+ posts and 2+ years' membership and 75+ recent likes
A donation will give you Site Supporter status, which carries even more benefits than Pentaxian.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/forum-suggestions-news-help/111032-need-m...supporter.html
(I gave you a like for this post to get the ball rolling on that. With 73 posts since joining a week ago, I suspect the post count will take care of itself in short order.
)