diff --git a/circle/dashboard/models.py b/circle/dashboard/models.py
index 2c8856b..4ddce7c 100644
--- a/circle/dashboard/models.py
+++ b/circle/dashboard/models.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
 from itertools import chain
+from hashlib import md5
 from logging import getLogger
 
 from django.conf import settings
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ from django.db.models import (
     DateTimeField, permalink, BooleanField
 )
 from django.template.loader import render_to_string
+from django.templatetags.static import static
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _, override, ugettext
 
 from model_utils.models import TimeStampedModel
@@ -96,6 +98,14 @@ class Profile(Model):
         return reverse("dashboard.views.profile",
                        kwargs={'username': self.user.username})
 
+    def get_avatar_url(self):
+        if self.use_gravatar:
+            gravatar_hash = md5(self.user.email).hexdigest()
+            return ("https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/%s"
+                    "?s=200" % gravatar_hash)
+        else:
+            return static("dashboard/img/avatar.png")
+
 
 class GroupProfile(AclBase):
     ACL_LEVELS = (
diff --git a/circle/dashboard/views.py b/circle/dashboard/views.py
index 6dd78d5..8018e40 100644
--- a/circle/dashboard/views.py
+++ b/circle/dashboard/views.py
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ from os import getenv
 import json
 import logging
 import re
-from hashlib import md5
 import requests
 
 from django.conf import settings
@@ -48,7 +47,6 @@ from django.utils.translation import ungettext as __
 from django.template.defaultfilters import title as title_filter
 from django.template.loader import render_to_string
 from django.template import RequestContext
-from django.templatetags.static import static
 
 from django.forms.models import inlineformset_factory
 from django_tables2 import SingleTableView
@@ -2845,7 +2843,7 @@ class ProfileView(LoginRequiredMixin, DetailView):
         context = super(ProfileView, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
         user = self.get_object()
         context['profile'] = user
-        context['avatar_url'] = get_user_avatar_url(user)
+        context['avatar_url'] = user.profile.get_avatar_url()
         context['instances_owned'] = Instance.get_objects_with_level(
             "owner", user, disregard_superuser=True).filter(destroyed_at=None)
         context['instances_with_access'] = Instance.get_objects_with_level(
@@ -2889,16 +2887,8 @@ def toggle_use_gravatar(request, **kwargs):
     profile.use_gravatar = not profile.use_gravatar
     profile.save()
 
-    new_avatar_url = get_user_avatar_url(user)
+    new_avatar_url = user.profile.get_avatar_url()
     return HttpResponse(
         json.dumps({'new_avatar_url': new_avatar_url}),
         content_type="application/json",
     )
-
-
-def get_user_avatar_url(user):
-    if user.profile.use_gravatar:
-        gravatar_hash = md5(user.email).hexdigest()
-        return "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/%s?s=200" % gravatar_hash
-    else:
-        return static("dashboard/img/avatar.png")