And rather than wait for it all to be over then try to liquidate the donated coins (and realise that would no longer be possible), they were selling the coins as they were donated, to the very people buying them to donate.

The net effect is that dollars themselves were donated effectively by means of doge.

Markets are complex systems and defy simple explanations, but many analysts make a living from ignoring this fact and making it seem like everything can be summed up in a 10 second soundbite. That sell was a drop in the bucket compared to the volume dogecoin has seen on the exchanges in the past 24 hours. Rumors abound about why the price has skyrocketed but I think that it boils down to a few things:

  - dedicated, welcoming community
  - coin ecosystem: well-orchestrated launch, smart developers 
    and pool operators, etc.
  - increased hashrate, second now only to that of bitcoin and litecoin.  
    This is partly from the community and partly from speculators: 
    success breeds success.
  - lots of good publicity

The rise was due to a single investor in China manipulating the market. Even if the entire donation was purchased in the exchanges, 25k isn't enough money to significantly affect the price.

According to some rumours, I honestly don't believe it. Not impossible though.

Blockchain link or it didn't happen.

Why would the donations be the reason for the 50% rise?