Below is a typical gift letter template you can share with donors. A mortgage gift letter is a document that helps satisfy the requirement that a borrower's down payment funds come from legitimate sources.You can use gifted funds to make a down payment, but your mortgage lender will want to know some details before they allow you to use it. A gift letter is an important, formal, legal piece of documentation that can help explain that a (usually rather large) sum of money was gifted to you. A gift letter for a mortgage is proof to the lender that money you've been given for your home purchase is a gift, not a loan to be repaid. The gift donor may not be a person or entity with an interest in the sale of the property such as the seller, real estate agent, builder, or developer. Gift funds may not be contributed from any source that has an interest in the sale of the property (seller, builder, real estate agent, etc.). To use gift funds, you must provide a gift letter proving the money is not a loan. The Mortgage Gift Letter Form acts as evidence of the donor's capability to grant the specified gift funds. At times, the lender may also provide the buyer with a Gift Letter form which the latter only needs to fill out.