You did the hours. Now someone wants proof, and the coordinator at the food bank is great but has never written one of these letters before. Neither have you. That's normal, and it's fixable in about ten minutes.
This page gives you a letter you can copy, fill in, and hand to the person who signs. It works for SNAP, Medicaid, public housing, school, and most court programs, as long as the place asking doesn't have its own form.
Check for an official form first
Before you use any template, ask the office that wants proof: "Do you have a form for volunteer hours?" Many do, and they'd rather get their own form back.
- SNAP. Federal rules say unpaid work counts, but it has to be "verified under standards established by the State agency." So each state picks its own proof. Washington uses Form 01-205. Pennsylvania uses Form PA 1938, which the nonprofit fills out.
- Medicaid. Most states are still building their process. Georgia, which has had Medicaid work rules since 2023, accepts a signed calendar or "a signed statement on organization letterhead."
- Courts and schools. Most have their own timesheet. Some want each entry signed.
You can look up your state on our state-by-state table. If there's no form, or the office says a letter is fine, use the one below.
What a volunteer hours letter must include
The new federal Medicaid rule spells out what good proof of community service looks like. It's a useful checklist for any program. A strong letter has:
- Your full name, the same way it appears on your case.
- The organization's name and address.
- The dates you volunteered and the hours each time, or at least a total for each month.
- What you did. "Sorted food donations" or "tutored kids after school" is plenty.
- A contact person with a phone number or email who can confirm the hours.
- A signature and date from that person or another staff member.
The Medicaid rule asks organizations to have "a point of contact who can confirm the hours completed." That one line is the part people forget most, and it's the part a caseworker needs most.
The letter template
Copy everything in the box. Replace each part in [brackets]. Print it on the organization's letterhead if it has one.
[Organization name]
[Street address, city, state, ZIP]
[Phone] [Email]
[Date]
To whom it may concern:
This letter confirms that [volunteer's full name] volunteered with [organization name], a [nonprofit / public agency / faith-based organization], during [month and year].
Dates and hours:
[Date]: [start time] to [end time], [hours] hours, [activity]
[Date]: [start time] to [end time], [hours] hours, [activity]
[Date]: [start time] to [end time], [hours] hours, [activity]
Total hours for [month and year]: [total]
[First name]'s work included [short description, for example: sorting and packing food for families in our pantry program]. This is unpaid volunteer work with a structured program that serves the community.
I supervised or keep the records for this work, and the information above is true to the best of my knowledge. You can reach me at [phone] or [email] to confirm these hours.
Sincerely,
[Signature]
[Printed name]
[Title]
[Organization EIN, if the program asks for it]
If you volunteer in more than one month, ask for one letter per month. Many SNAP offices count hours month by month, and a separate letter for each month is easier for them to match.
Tips that keep a letter from being sent back
- Totals must add up. A caseworker will add the lines. If they don't match the total, the letter usually comes back.
- Use real times, not "about 3 hours." Rounding to the quarter hour is fine.
- Keep a copy. Take a phone photo before you hand it in. If it's lost, you can send it again the same day.
- Watch the deadline. Washington wants SNAP volunteer proof by the 10th of the next month, for example. Ask yours.
- Don't double count. Some states won't let the same hours count for both SNAP and a court order. Ask before you plan on it.
- Get it signed by someone else. A letter signed by you, a relative, or a friend won't count.
If you're the nonprofit signing it
You're not promising anything beyond what you saw or what your records show. Read the letter, fix anything that's wrong, and sign it. If you're getting asked a lot, our guide on how nonprofits can verify volunteer hours covers a simple system, what to do when you're not sure, and how to keep it from eating your week.
A letter that checks itself
A paper letter is easy to lose and hard for a caseworker to check. That's the problem Verified Hours was built for. The volunteer logs hours on their phone, the nonprofit confirms them with a tap, and the volunteer gets a signed letter with a QR code. Anyone who scans it sees the hours and who confirmed them, so nobody has to play phone tag. It's free for volunteers and nonprofits.
You don't need it to meet the rule, though. A clear, signed letter like the one above does the job in most places.
Next steps
Find out what your program wants: read about SNAP work requirements or Medicaid work requirements. Then copy the template, fill it in, and get it signed before your deadline.