A gift for putting party before country (8)
I believe the answer is:
donation
'a gift' is the definition.
(I know that donation is a type of gift)
'party before country' is the wordplay.
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'country' becomes 'nation' (synonyms).
'do'+'nation'='DONATION'
'for putting' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for donation that I've seen before include "Gift or contribution" , "An offering or charitable gift" , "Do anoint by way of a gift" , "present" , "Money given to charity" .)