He gives a fellow some work (5)
I believe the answer is:
donor
'he gives' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a fellow some work' is the wordplay.
'a fellow' becomes 'don' (both can mean an academic).
'some' indicates the central letters.
The middle letters of 'work' are 'or'.
'don'+'or'='DONOR'
(Other definitions for donor that I've seen before include "One who dishes out" , "blessed person, relatively" , "One who gives blood, for instance" , "One contributing" , "Subscriber" .)