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.Use our mortgage gift letter A short letter like this sample gift letter will cover all of the requirements your lender needs. When you use gift funds, you have to provide a gift letter that proves the funds are not a loan to be repaid. A gift letter is a note from a donor to your lender regarding cash funds for your mortgage down payment. 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. A mortgage gift letter is a document that helps satisfy the requirement that a borrower's down payment funds come from legitimate sources. What should you include in a gift letter? Mortgage gift letters tell the lender that money for your loan came from a gift.