If you're tired of using candy sales for school fundraisers, here's an alternative that's gaining in popularity and which usually returns large rewards for groups who run with it.
Make each of the classrooms or homerooms responsible for their own themed gift basket, sending notes home to parents asking them to donate a single item within the theme provided. You might also want to contact local retailers, businesses and sales representatives in your area to see if any of them would like to get involved as well.
For example, one of the classrooms might choose a sports theme, so the associated basket would include a baseball glove, basketball, jersey, and maybe tickets to a future game. A basket for chocolate lovers might include a chocolate bar, chocolate-themed cookbook, and a box of hot chocolate or brownie mix. Once you've assembled all of the baskets they can be auctioned off or you can sell raffle tickets against them. Make sure a listing of each basket's contents are clearly displayed.
Obtain a roll of two part raffle tickets, then place a bucket by each basket. Participants place half a ticket into the buckets of any of the baskets they're interested in winning. When the end of the night arrives, draw the winning tickets and let the participants claim their prizes.
You can read more gift basket fundraising ideas here.
