Two national nonprofits that rely almost entirely on local funding are joining forces to cut costs and double their fundraising power in hopes of increasing services.

Easter Seals Florida Inc.'s Keys Region and the Boys Girls Clubs of the Keys Area Bayview Park have a common clientele: Both serve low-income children with physical disabilities.

"It's the first step in long-term collaboration," Boys Girls Clubs Executive Director Dan Dombroski said of combining offices and the impending sharing of clientele. "As grants decrease, there's a greater demand on nonprofit boards to raise money. By combining our offices, services and fundraising efforts, we can be more effective in helping our clients and the community."

Each group will maintain its own identify, but working together will expand the effectiveness of their limited individual outreach, Dombroski said.

With an annual budget of $410,000, Easter Seals serves about 1,050 children, 75 percent of its 1,400-person clientele of physically challenged Keys residents, Executive Director Rob Porcaro said. The Boys Girls Clubs has a budget of about $550,000, and serves more than 180 children in Key West alone and about 100 children in Big Pine Key, Dombroski said.

While Easter Seals provides physical therapy for children with special needs, the Boys Girls Clubs provides day care, after-school and summer programs for low-income children, including those with physical handicaps.

"We can send a physical therapist to play groups in homes or Boys Girls Clubs groups and work with them on site," Porcaro said. "We also can go to day care centers and reinforce therapy to teacher aides so they can go to people's homes and help kids individually with speech and physical therapy."

The agreement helps the Boys Girls Clubs serve new clients, too.

"If a parent needs a place for her child to interact with other children while she's undergoing physical therapy with Easter Seals, she can drop her child off with us for the afternoon," Dombroski said.

The groups also hope to split the cost of a development director, but it won't be this year.

Dombroski, whose office was in the May Sands School near White Street, has moved into the Easter Seals' College Road building. A new sign is already up next to the doorway.

Both nonprofits have executive boards to design and produce fundraising programs, but Dombroski said a member from each board will work together to design collaborative money-raising events.

"We would combine our ideas and time to pull them off," he said.

The two groups, though strong national brands, have a tough time getting corporate sponsorships, Porcaro said. Large national companies don't sponsor unless they have stores or offices in a given area, he said.

As the Monroe County Commission reduces money for nonprofits and donations continue to drop nationally for all nonprofits, the two directors hope their idea will spur other Keys nonprofits to join forces.

"It's going to save us money in the long run, though it won't show up right away," Dombroski said. "But it lets us serve more people, new people right away."

jguerra@keysnews.com