The 25-year-old was on the periphery of Newcastle's 2011 Championship-winning squad, and sees comparisons with the promotion-chasing Devon side.
"When teams beat us they celebrate like they've won the league, which is a bit similar," he told BBC Sport.
"It's the same - people up their game against us, which you've got to deal with when you're a big club like us."
On Saturday, Donaldson will make his first return to his last club Cambridge, for whom he scored the goal which won them promotion back into the Football League in 2014.
Argyle are second in the fourth tier, but were beaten by Yeovil on Tuesday, only their seventh league defeat in 27 games.
"Yeovil the other night, you should've heard them when they won, " Donaldson added.
"It's not annoying, it just feels better when you beat them because we should beat teams like that, but sometimes it happens and you've just got to move on and get on with it.
"We've got so many good players here - I've not played in a squad this good since I made the step up into men's football, so I think we all push each other on."

Cedric Anderson entered a primary school on Monday in San Bernardino, California, and gunned down estranged spouse Karen Elaine Smith, 53.
On Facebook, he referred to the special needs teacher as "my wonderful little wife", "sexy" and a "pure spirit".
But some online posts by Anderson, also 53, hinted at a darker side.
The couple, who had reportedly been in a relationship for years, wed in January, but were separated within a few weeks.
Anderson initially seemed to be a smitten husband, rhapsodising about his bride and proclaiming himself "blessed".
"She has no guile or pretense," he wrote in one post of Ms Smith. "She has no ill will toward anyone. (It amazes me!).
"I praise God for such a wonderful Lady!"
But in February Anderson exposed a violent streak as he boasted on Facebook of having "almost personally attacked 3 Coaches to get my son Jared a scholarship".
"A father is like a lion. He will kill you for his Blood!" he wrote.
On 12 March, he shared a New York Post video of a man kicking an elderly woman in the face on a bus, entitled: "Can you hear me now?"
Anderson wrote along with the video: "Deranged? Yea!"
Ms Smith's mother, Irma Sykes, told ABC News: "We thought he was a fine person. Until they were married and then he showed the other side of him.
"Which we had never seen before. We were shocked. He began to pick on my daughter and talk down to her.
"And they had dated for four years. And after about three weeks, my husband and I decided, you need to get away from him.
"He is not the kind of person you thought he was."
In 2013 Anderson was charged with assault and battery, brandishing a weapon and disturbing the peace, but the charges were dismissed a year later.
In 1993, he was charged with two misdemeanour counts of battery in Kern Superior Court, the Los Angeles Times reported.
However, court records show both charges were dismissed six months later.
Somehow, the man who posted a selfie on Facebook a month ago celebrating "date night!!!" with his new wife was able to walk into the classroom on Monday morning where she was teaching and gun her down in cold blood with a Smith and Wesson .357 revolver.
Without saying a word, he discharged 10 shots and stopped to reload, police said.
Two children in the North Park Elementary School special needs class of 15 students were injured in the crossfire, authorities said.
Jonathan Martinez, eight, died and a nine-year-old was in hospital in a stable condition.
Plymouth Argyle midfielder Ryan Donaldson says League Two teams see the Pilgrims as a major scalp.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A newlywed who fatally shot his wife and a child before turning the gun on himself at a US school had projected a blissful marriage on social media.