HoHoTO logo

Toronto’s biggest and best digital community holiday party

in support of YWCA Toronto’s Girls’ Centre and year-round Together initiatives.

Together is a volunteer organization that brings capability and opportunity to the digital community through a series of inclusive initiatives.

The history of HoHoTO

HoHoTO began as a holiday party to raise sorely-needed funds for community initiatives.Late in 2008, a group of friends started talking on Twitter about the plight of the hungry in Toronto.

The idea for HoHoTO grew organically out of this discussion, fuelled by a shared belief among a relatively small group of like-minded people. Using Twitter, Facebook, email, and our collected networks of close friends and loose ties, we kicked off a process that lit up the tweetstreams and blogvines; quickly turning a much, much bigger group of people on to the same core idea: That people in our great city are hungry and we can make a difference.

The result, that first year, was an extraordinary party attended by more than 500 enthusiastic people from the local tech, media, digital marketing, social media, and PR communities. The whole thing was organized in less than 20 days, sold out in nine, and went on to astonish all of us involved as we watched something bigger than we’d ever dreamed take shape before our eyes.HoHoTO became a hyper-connected social media movement and a remarkable example of the power of self-organizing online groups. Along the way, we’ve received messages of support from the likes of Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, BoingBoing co-founder Cory Doctorow and many others.

We’ve called in the troops (the 48th Highlanders) to help us deliver the donated food to Daily Bread so that their regular resources would not be redirected by our last-minute event. We’ve been cited as an example of social action by Queen Rania of Jordan and referenced as a case study in business books. As an annual event, has raised more than $400,000 and collected around four tons of food for hungry Torontonians to date. Donate now to continue supporting the Daily Bread!

Since 2015, this great party has done even more by acting as the hub that connect organizations with our vibrant digital community in an effort to drive beneficial change in our technology ecosystem. And through a series of initiatives, this party has transitioned into a year-round organization that serves youth, professionals, and organizations in shaping a more inclusive digital community.

Our sponsors

Eighty Eight logoBlended perspectives logoSay Yeah logoInsurance portfolio financial services logoAllure Waxing specialist logoPanago Pizza logoKanetix.ca logoBoost AgentsLake Wilcox Brewing logoAmber Mac logo