Less than a decade ago, the people of Chicago and its suburbs were served by 52 separate United Ways. Today, the region has but one. Gone is the need for multiple offices, forms, accounting systems, rules, directors and other examples of needless duplication. The result: More of the money donated to what became the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago actually goes to serve people in need.

When the missions of nonprofit organizations match or augment one another, mergers make sense. That is why the United Way of Merrimack County and Manchester's Heritage United Way are joining forces. It is a partnership that other social service agencies should watch closely and emulate when possible.

Nonprofits suffer when hard times hit. Donations drop while demand for services rise, so mergers to save money have occurred in many states. That's not the case here. Donations in both communities have held steady during the recession and in some cases increased.

Liz Hager, executive director of the Merrimack County United Way and Patrick Tufts, Heritage's president, met with the Monitor's editorial board recently to explain the imminent union of the organizations and assuage any fear that the larger one would swallow the smaller. Though there will be a regional governing board that sets broad policy and hires top staff, local committees in each city will lead fundraising campaigns and decide how to allocate the money raised. The combined charities raise approximately $5.7 million each year. All money raised locally - about $3.69 million in Manchester and $2.1 million in Concord - will continue to be spent locally.

For the past three years, the Merrimack County United Way has run the backroom operations of the North Country United Way, and that region will remain part of the merged organization, one whose name has not yet been chosen. Of the state's seven other United Ways, six remain independent. One, on the Seacoast, merged with the Boston-area United Way last year.

Currently, 10 people work in the Manchester office and six in Concord. It's too soon to say how much money the merger will save or how many employees the combined agencies will ultimately have. The Manchester United Way will save a quick $32,000 per year by renting a smaller office in that city while moving the bulk of its staff to Concord, whose United Way owns its headquarters. The long-term savings will be measured in six figures.

The combined charities have also begun to require that the recipients of their support show measurable results and efficient use of the money. Too often, small nonprofits, all with their own overhead costs, are trying to address the same problem or help the same population. Tufts described six separate nonprofits that sought grants to aid children in the same six-block area of Manchester. Between them, they filed requests to aid more children than there were children in need in the area. The groups were asked to join forces, work together and submit a common grant. They failed, and ultimately just two were funded.

The proliferation of nonprofits makes it impossible for a United Way, or the state for that matter, to fund and monitor all of them, and money is used less efficiently when doled out in dollops to many agencies rather than targeted.

The increased need for aid has made inefficiency unaffordable. Like the United Way, the Department of Health and Human Services, which disburses money to hundreds of nonprofits, is restructuring its operation in search of savings that will allow it to help more people.

Nonprofits of every stripe should watch the United Way experiment and consider emulating it.