In recent years, declines in animal pollinators have stimulated tremendous interest in pollinator-friendly gardening. There is a widespread notion that pollinator gardens are beneficial, but the specific capacity of pollinator gardens to improve biodiversity conservation and societal well-being remains unclear. We argue that setting clear ecological and social goals can clarify the value of pollinator gardens for both pollinators and people. Effective goals will articulate specific, quantifiable, and realistic endpoints across scales of biological organization. Opportunities and challenges for setting goals will vary across landscape contexts, cultural systems, stakeholder values, and geographic regions. In community-based pollinator projects, harnessing the potential of gardens to improve outcomes requires an evidence-based, iterative process involving identifying shared values, defining specific goals and measurable indicators, proposing straightforward interventions, monitoring progress, and evaluating success, including adaptive management if success is not met. These ideas provide ecologists and conservation practitioners with a practical framework for how to channel the swell of enthusiasm for pollinator gardening and, more generally, community-driven conservation efforts in dynamic socioecological systems toward measurable impacts on biodiversity and people.