Next week marks the start of the holiday season and, with it, some semblance of the Christmas shopping splurge. The former celebrates charity and goodwill; the latter marks the height of consumerism and capitalism.

With our nation’s sagging economy, we’d be Scrooge to deny that the commercial sector could use attention through our wallets and credit cards. Yet we’d still ask fellow Central Texans to heavily consider charity in the mix, especially with nonprofits facing hard times.

As Trib staff writer Wendy Gragg noted in a Page One story Thursday, the economic crisis is squeezing local foundations that assist nonprofits in education, health care, housing and quality-of-life concerns. Some foundations are having harder times of it than others, but with volatile market forces shaking even shrewd, long-term investments, it behooves all to closely scrutinize how foundation dollars are spent.

Our hope is that individuals will spread goodwill this season by going through the same discriminating process that groups such as the Waco Foundation, the Cooper Foundation and the Rapoport Foundation undergo — by carefully weighing the missions of nonprofits in heart and head, then determining how best your dollars can help others less fortunate.

Some of those with special appeal include the Early Childhood Assessment Project, to which the Waco Foundation just awarded $20,000, allowing for the proper surveying of early childhood services in McLennan County. This fits nicely with goals from the local education summit that wrapped up Friday. One goal: focusing on the critical developmental needs of children age 3 and under.

Other causes might include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas, which won $40,000 to help revitalize its program, or Caritas, which continues its mission of ensuring the destitute have food. This might be a special time to remember the food bank as its executive director, Kenneth Moerbe, prepares to formally retire.

Actually, Moerbe tells us he plans to continue the good work by devoting more time to the Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition and the McLennan County Hunger Coalition.

’Tis a fine example to follow this season.