People entering party with small gifts (9)
I believe the answer is:
donations
'gifts' is the definition.
(donation is a kind of gift)
'people entering party with small' is the wordplay.
'people' becomes 'nation' (**).
'entering' is an insertion indicator.
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'do'+'s'='dos'
'nation' put inside 'dos' is 'DONATIONS'.
(Other definitions for donations that I've seen before include "Contributions" , "Gifts" .)