The letter must explain who is gifting the money, where the donor's funds are coming from and the relationship between the donor and the recipient. A gift letter for a mortgage shows your lender that you don't need to repay gift money toward your down payment.A short letter like this sample gift letter will cover all of the requirements your lender needs. A mortgage gift letter is a document that helps satisfy the requirement that a borrower's down payment funds come from legitimate sources. Here's a sample gift letter you can use to prove that the money is truly meant as an outright gift, with no expectation of repayment. If you use gifted funds toward your home purchase, your mortgage lender will need a gift letter to explain that the money is not a loan. A gift letter is a note from a donor to your lender regarding cash funds for your mortgage down payment. The scammer also might stay on the phone with you while you go to the store and load money onto the card. If this happens to you, hang up. We do not give away houses.