A group of area businesses wants to increase the collaboration between companies that put an emphasis on volunteering in Greater Des Moines.

The Business Volunteer Council, founded by 12 area companies along with United Way of Central Iowa, aims to bring businesses together to discuss what works when it comes to employee volunteering.

“The purpose is, simply put, to bring together businesses that have a common passion and interest around volunteerism for the purpose of sharing ideas and coming up with some innovative solutions, and collaborate together on how we can best together engage even more employees in volunteering in our community,” said Shirley Burgess, volunteer engagement director with United Way. “There simply has not been, for many years, a place for businesses really to know what each other is doing.”

Michelle Gowdy, senior manager of community investment at Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. and chairperson of the council, said she hopes to learn how others measure their success with employee volunteer programs. She also wants to learn how companies get employees excited about volunteering.

“It is kind of nice, because in the world of philanthropy we can all kind of put down our guards and our shields and work together,” Gowdy said.

Her goal is to make the council inclusive for all companies, regardless of whether they are involved with United Way. The founding companies include large companies such as Principal Financial Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. and medium-sized companies such as the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines. Gowdy also encourages small businesses to get in the mix.

The first meeting took place on Oct. 4, with about 60 people representing 30 businesses in attendance, Burgess said. Bea Boccalandro from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship was the guest speaker, presenting best practices for employee volunteer programs based on research of Fortune 500 companies.

The next meeting will take place from 7:45 to 9 a.m. on Nov. 1 at Methodist West Hospital, 1660 60th St., West Des Moines, and will focus on local businesses sharing what they have found to be best practices.