Toys for
Tots SF
A Party to Brighten the Holidays
A San Francisco holiday tradition since 2004. Every December a few hundred friends fill a ballroom, bring toys for families across the city, and stay for a drink.
Admission is three new, unwrapped toys.
22nd
annual party, December 2026
~500
guests at last year’s party
2004
founded at the Starlight Room — five hosts, 300 guests
What it is
An afternoon party
with a purpose.
This is a grown-ups’ cocktail party, not a children’s event. There is no ticket. Admission is three new, unwrapped toys brought to the door — smart attire, cash bar, and a room full of people who have been coming for years.
The party is volunteer-led with no paid staff, and the ballroom is donated. Every toy that comes through the door is distributed to families in San Francisco by the Firefighters Local 798 Toy Program.
How to come
The party has always been invitation-led. Most guests come through a member of the host committee.
Space is limited, so please reply in advance — ToysForTots.SF@gmail.com
Bring three new, unwrapped toys. Nothing else is required.
Twenty-two years, four rooms
The party has moved as it has grown.
Give
Toys fill the room.
Gifts keep the lights on.
Toys for Tots SF runs on roughly $30,000 a year — production, insurance and administration for one afternoon that moves thousands of toys. There are no salaries and no ticket revenue. It is funded entirely by people who care about it.
If you or your company would like to support the 2026 party, write to us and we will send the details.
Tax status
501(c)(3)
Toys for Tots SF is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
- Legal name
- Toys for Tots SF
- EIN
- 42-4310325
- State
- California, entity B20260329212
Please consult your tax advisor about the deductibility of your gift.
The 22nd annual party
Sunday,
December 6.
Four until seven in the afternoon. Smart attire, cash bar, and three new unwrapped toys at the door.
When
Sunday
December 6, 2026
4–7 PM
Where
Venue to be
confirmed
San Francisco
Admission
Three new,
unwrapped toys
No ticket, no cover
Attire
Smart
attire
Cash bar
What to expect
Three hours, one room,
a few hundred friends.
Arrive any time after four. Hand your toys to a volunteer at the door — they go straight into the collection for the Firefighters Local 798 Toy Program, who sort and deliver them to families across San Francisco before Christmas.
Then it is a party. A cash bar, a room that gets loud by five, and the same faces who have been turning up since the Starlight Room.
Bringing toys
New and unwrapped, please — the distribution partner needs to see what each gift is in order to match it to a child’s age.
Three is the ask, not the limit. Most guests bring a bag.
Three new,
unwrapped toys.
Host committee
The people who fill the room.
Shown: the 2025 committee. The 2026 committee will be listed here as participation is confirmed.
RSVP
Space is limited.
Please reply in advance so we can plan the room. If a host invited you, mention their name.
Since December 2004
Twenty-two years
of the same party.
It started as a cocktail party for three hundred people and became a San Francisco tradition without ever being advertised. This is what we have been able to document.
The first outing
December 5, 2004.
Five hosts — Brian Backus, John Lake, Derek Barnes, Arthur Goodrich and Gregg Lynn — gathered friends at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, atop the Sir Francis Drake. Three hundred guests came. About five hundred toys went to Raphael House, La Casa de las Madres and five other shelters. Harry Denton donated the room.
The San Francisco Bay Times reported it on page six that week and called it “the first outing.”
“This started with about 200 people eleven years ago and it’s grown to over a thousand people now. It’s not publicized, it’s not mass marketed — you just have to know somebody to be invited.”
Gregg Lynn, at the party, 2016
Four rooms
Where the party has lived.
The record
Milestones we can document.
The first outing
Three hundred guests and about five hundred toys at the Starlight Room. Five founding hosts.
The St. Regis era begins
The party moves to the St. Regis Ballroom at Third and Mission, where it stays for eleven years.
Past a thousand guests
The Bay Times and Drew Altizer begin documenting the party each year. Invitation-only throughout.
Outgrew the St. Regis
Donna Sachet, in her Bay Times column: “Having outgrown The Starlight Room, The Green Room and the St. Regis, this year’s event happened in the Grand Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel.”
The pause
No party for three years. The tradition returns to the calendar in December 2023 on Union Square.
The return
The Westin St. Francis becomes the party’s fourth home.
Roughly five hundred guests
Toys collected in partnership with the San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 Toy Program. Co-produced by Gregg Lynn and Pierce Neinken.
A nonprofit of its own
After two decades of routing donations through other charities, Toys for Tots SF is incorporated in California and recognised as a 501(c)(3) — able, for the first time, to accept a gift directly.
Where the toys go
Out the door
and across the city.
In 2004 the toys went to Raphael House in the Tenderloin, La Casa de las Madres in the Mission, and five other shelters. Today they are collected and distributed by the San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 Toy Program, who match gifts to children by age and deliver them before Christmas.
Help us fill the gaps
Some years of this party survive only in private inboxes and camera rolls. If you have photographs, invitations or programmes from any year — particularly between 2005 and 2015 — we would like to add them to the record.
Give
Toys fill the room.
Gifts keep
the lights on.
For two decades this party ran on borrowed infrastructure. In 2026 it became a nonprofit of its own — which means, for the first time, it can accept a gift directly.
What a gift pays for
About $30,000 a year.
There are no salaries. Nobody is paid, the ballroom is donated, and no ticket is sold. What money there is covers production, event insurance, and the administration of a small nonprofit — filings, accounting, and the cost of being able to accept a gift at all.
Everything else is toys, and those come through the door in guests’ arms.
Production
Staging, signage, volunteers and the run of show.
Insurance
Event and liability cover for a few hundred guests.
Administration
State and federal filings, accounting, banking.
Tax status
501(c)(3)
Toys for Tots SF is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
- Legal name
- Toys for Tots SF
- EIN
- 42-4310325
- California entity
- B20260329212
- Incorporated
- July 17, 2026
We cannot advise you on your own taxes. Please consult your tax advisor about the deductibility of a cash gift or a donated toy.
Ways to help
Bring toys
Three new, unwrapped toys at the door. This is the whole admission price, and it is what the party is for.
Make a gift
Cash gifts of any size go toward the cost of putting the party on. Write to us and we will send details for a cheque or transfer.
Sponsor the party
Companies have supported this party for years. If yours would like to, tell us and we will send the current options.
Talk to us
One email,
a real person.
There is no form and no portal. Write to us about sponsorship, a gift, or bringing a group, and Pierce or Gregg will reply.
Sponsorship & giving enquiries
Toys for Tots SF · 1550 Mission Street, Unit 3810 · San Francisco, CA 94103
About
A volunteer party
with a filing
cabinet.
Toys for Tots SF has no employees and no offices. It is a few people who have thrown the same party for twenty-two years, and as of 2026, a California nonprofit corporation.
Why we incorporated
For over two decades donations were routed through other charities — the San Francisco firefighters’ toy program, and for nineteen years before that, Variety the Children’s Charity. It worked, but it meant the party could never accept a gift in its own name.
In July 2026 Toys for Tots SF was incorporated in California as a nonprofit public benefit corporation, and it is now recognised as a 501(c)(3). Incorporation was handled pro bono by Hogan Lovells Cadwalader US LLP.
How it runs
One party a year, run by a host committee of about thirty people who bring their own friends. No paid staff, no ticket revenue, a donated ballroom, and a charitable partner who handles the toys.
Directors receive no compensation. The organization has no members; the board acts in their place.
Board of directors
Four directors, three officers.
Pierce Neinken
President & Director
Co-producer of the party
Sean Livingston
Treasurer & Director
Chief Financial Officer
John Crandon
Secretary & Director
Involved since the beginning
Gregg Lynn
Director
A founding host, 2004
Distribution partner
SF Firefighters
Local 798 Toy Program
Collects, sorts and delivers every toy to families across San Francisco.
Volunteers
Gay for Good
Staffs the door and the collection on the day.
Produced by
Pierce Neinken
& Gregg Lynn
Event management by Suzy Drell Creative Design.
Contact
Write to us.
One address for everything — RSVPs, sponsorship, press, and photographs for the archive.
Toys for Tots SF
1550 Mission Street, Unit 3810
San Francisco, CA 94103
Transparency
- Legal name
- Toys for Tots SF
- Entity type
- CA nonprofit public benefit corporation
- State entity no.
- B20260329212
- Incorporated
- July 17, 2026
- EIN
- 42-4310325
- Tax status
- 501(c)(3)
- Fiscal year
- January–December
Governing documents and annual filings are available on request.