Setting - and reporting on - fundraising goals is about more than tracking progress.
Your goals and your measurements help to tell a story to your team and your leadership.
They tell what's important to you and your organization.
In turn, they can help guide and direct your board.
Here's an example - if donor retention is important to your organization, then your donor retention rate should be a goal and metric that appears on all your reports.
(Just as sidebar, donor retention should be very important to your organization)
If the board is regularly shown your progress on donor retention, it opens the question: How can board members help with donor retention?
This can lead to more stewardship opportunities for your board - like thank you calls and recognition events.
If the only thing you measure is dollars raised - then you are telling your board that income (not retention or relationships) is the most important thing for them to watch.
Want to learn more? Here's a 10 minute video I filmed about goal setting.