Yep, the toon cascading thing is an excellent way to go. I had three RAF referred accounts and wanted to bring up lots of teams on a brand new server. I got out a big spreadsheet and planned it all out - ended up with 24 level 61s just a couple months after starting on a new server. The big key is to maximize the free levels by only gifting toons that are close in level to the gifter. Sounds like you've got it figured out pretty well.