Settlements in town send me nuts (10)
I believe the answer is:
endowments
'settlements' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'town send me nuts' is the wordplay.
'nuts' is an anagram indicator (nuts can mean crazy).
'town'+'send'+'me'='townsendme'
'townsendme' with letters rearranged gives 'ENDOWMENTS'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for endowments that I've seen before include "some schools rely on" , "gifts" , "Natural talents" .)