The majority of the correspondence files document activities of the state organizations and are mainly the incoming correspondence of E. W. Peck, Minnesota state YMCA secretary. There are also letters addressed to E. W. Decker, state treasurer; R. C. Coffin, assistant secretary; and others. Arranged first by the last name of the sender and then chronologically within each letter, most of the correspondence dates from October 1917 to December 1918 and concerns raising money for YMCA war funds and the recruitment of volunteers (called secretaries) to serve on the European war fronts. Detailed applications with family and personal data, photographs, and work history, are found throughout. Other letters give details of applicant's lives at the time and offer a good glimpse of their thoughts toward both the war and war service with the YMCA. There are also a number of sets of miscellaneous correspondence files, the most prominent of which document the organizing of "community sings" and information booths at the 1918 county fairs and the state fair.

The alphabetically arranged subject/correspondence files mainly concern the organization of YWCA/YMCA units at Minnesota colleges, the Victory Girls program, and the United War Work Campaign, a merged fundraising campaign of the YMCA, YWCA, National Catholic War Council of the Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, War Camp Community Service, American Library Association, and the Salvation Army. There is also a file on YMCA work with the Italian Army.