A series of Mn III saltmen dimers, [Mn 2 (5-Rsaltmen) 2 (X) 2 ](A) 2n (saltmen 2− = N,N′-(1,1,2,2-tetramethylethylene)bis(salicylideneiminate); R = H, Cl, Br, MeO, Me; X = H 2 O, ReO 4 − , NO 3 − , N 3 − , NCS − , A − = ClO 4 − , PF 6 − , CF 3 SO 3− for X = H 2 O) were synthesized and structurally and magnetically investigated to understand the correlation between their intradimer ferromagnetic (FM) interaction and single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior. All complexes had a similar di-μ-phenolate-bridged out-of-plane dimer structure but displayed different bridging Mn−O ph * distances depending on the R substituents of the saltmen ligand and axial X ligand. Magnetic susceptibility studies revealed intradimer FM coupling (J Mn−Mn* ), resulting in an S T = 4 ground state for all dimers. However, the magnitude of FM coupling strongly depended on R and X. J Mn−Mn* increased with decreasing Mn−O ph * distance but decreased with decreasing Mn−X distance with a relation of H 2 O ≈ ReO 4 − > NO 3 − > N 3 − ≈ NCS − with a linear trend for R = H, Cl, Me but not for R = Br, MeO. Theoretical investigations revealed that a larger orbital overlap stabilized a FM spin configuration through competition between the orbital degeneracy and on-site Coulomb repulsion of out-of-phase and in-phase orbitals. Most dimers showed typical SMM behavior. The dimers with larger J Mn−Mn* tended to have higher blocking temperatures.