The most essential piece of setting a fundraising goal is that it should be realistic but also take some work to attain. Establishing a goal is an easy way to get motivated and give yourself a benchmark for success.
Go back and edit your goal if you exceed it quickly and celebrate your milestones when you reach them!
The second essential piece of setting a goal is making it public! Use email, Facebook and word of mouth to communicate your fundraising goal and how close you are to attaining it.
This helps donors to have some context for how much you are trying to fundraise and how much they should consider giving.