Learn English – Asking (for) permission

I think you understand things correctly.

How is used to ask about the quality/degree of something, or the manner in which something was done. When you ask someone how is X, they may respond with a details in a similar manner as what, but the reason is to communicate a quality/degree - typically "good" or "bad."

So...

How is your teacher?

She's this really weird tall lady with these crazy glasses, and she was yelling at everyone today.

The implication here is that she considers the teacher a bit intimidating, so somewhat "bad." And that's what the person asking how really wanted to know.

What's X like to me, implies that you are less interested in the person's personal feelings - rather, you want to know how X compares to other X's - than how's does. But this can be influenced either way greatly by context.

Q: What's the weather like over there?

A: It snows a lot down here, and sometimes it rains.

Q: So usually, how's the weather over there?

A: It snows a lot down here. But it's raining now.

Q: How's the weather?

A: Rainy. Take a jacket.

Q: What's the weather like?

A: Today? It's rainy.

Tᴚoɯɐuo's comment pretty much answered your question, but I thought I'd add a bit more detail.

• Donation - to voluntarily give something away for free as a gift, usually to charity, or for a charitable cause. The giver has not received, and does not expect to receive, anything in return for their donation. The "something" donated can be money, an object, or a service (i.e. something that has a value to the receiver of the donation).
• Contribution - to give something as part of a number of people giving something. As above, this could be money, an object or a service. A contribution may or may not be voluntary and may or may not be charitable (e.g. contributing to the payment for a group meal in a restaurant, where everyone pays for what they ate).
• Charity - Most often used to refer to a particular organisation The charity cares for abandoned animals, or the subset of organisations that are defined as "charities" (i.e. non-profit organisations that give some form of aid and (usually) raise money for this purpose) The proceeds went to charity. It is sometimes used to mean the aid provided to or by someone (voluntarily and for free) She relied on charity to survive. It is not very common to use it to mean a sum of money specifically, but it can do in some contexts.

Donation and contribution can mostly be used interchangeably when the charitable context is clear. If it is not, donation can make it clear. Donate or donation is much more commonly used when asking for a contribution, or when talking about charitable giving. For example, you would never say that you "contributed blood" to a blood bank/hospital, but you would say that you "donated" or "gave" blood.

Some people consider there to be a stigma attached to receiving charity, so if they have received charitable (especially financial) help from a friend, relative, or stranger they may be less likely to refer to it as charity or a donation because of this.