donation vs alms

donation and alms both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
donation	Yes	No	No	No
alms	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, alms is a hyponym of donation; that is, alms is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than donation:

donation: act of giving in common with others for a common purpose especially to a charity
alms: money or goods contributed to the poor

Other hyponyms of donation include subscription.

donation (noun)	alms (noun)
act of giving in common with others for a common purpose especially to a charity	money or goods contributed to the poor
a voluntary gift (as of money or service or ideas) made to some worthwhile cause