People of all means are watching their budgets. What that means is different to all of us:

"We're not going abroad next year."

"No eating out; we're having friends in for dinner."

"I'm clipping coupons for the first time."

Let's remember the people who are really trapped in this financial squeeze — those who are hungry, homeless or helpless.

If you are considering cutting your contributions to charitable organizations because your portfolio is down, don't.

Especially not to the ones that help the neediest among us. Your household feels the effects of higher costs of food and health care. So do the nonprofits that give people shelter, sustenance and medicine.

When the stock market started tumbling, nonprofit leaders surveyed Americans to learn that more than half said they planned to give to charity this holiday season as last; a third said they would give less. That was then; this is now.

Every week of the last month, the Santa Fe Community Foundation has heard from a nonprofit that is in dire straits. It needs just enough money to keep the lights on until that federal grant comes through on Jan. 1. The board is disappointed and dismayed when they try to fundraise. The numbers of people needing medical care or animals needing shelter have increased, but nonprofit budgets have not.

As community foundations do, we have tried to connect them with donors who care about these causes or hired consultants to restructure their budgets, get them out of leases or to teach board members how to plead their cause.

And we've been honored this month to help those who want to care for this community: the local family who asked how their six-figure gift could best help their neighbors; the business that gave up a holiday party and instead distributed the money to groups that help children get dental care and the hungry get food; and the businesswoman who decided her well-endowed alma mater has enough and she would rather remember Santa Fe in her will so that we can improve public education.

As Santa Feans, there is much that we can do:

u Give to the Empty Stocking Fund, a project of this newspaper that helps people who are one illness or vehicle breakdown away from a lost job and financial meltdown. Give generously, but remember that what we do now is a finger in the dike of potential disasters year-round.

u Budget personal finances strategically. Make a budget. Decide which nonprofits weave the safety net for this community and which are attacking root causes to problems.

u Ask your friends and family to give in your name to your favorite charity.

There's something to be said for postponing that trip to Tahiti and visiting grandkids instead. Or for the warmth and fellowship that comes from inviting friends over for dinner. Or for the satisfaction in opening that envelope that says someone has made a gift to a nonprofit in our name.

Whatever our net worth on paper, most of us can still afford to open our hearts and pocketbooks for our neighbors.

Billie Blair is president of the Santa Fe Community Foundation.