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Uniting a Team Around a Common Goal Offers Limitless Potential

Candoris Founder and Chief Accountability Officer Stephan Van Der Ploog approached establishing a digital solutions company as an opportunity—and blank slate—for a leader to develop guiding principles in new territory.

This humbling responsibility wasn’t taken lightly, and the digital solutions provider called Candoris emerged as a company focused on committing resources to impact children around the world with medicine, education, and clean water initiatives. The core purpose of creating lasting value through fellowship and innovation is visible in the hearts and hands of a team that leverages technology and the daily pursuit of customer satisfaction and success. They are inspired and challenged by these core values created at the company’s institution that remain strong and constant to this day:

  • Humility, Unity, Truth; Absence of Negativity, Politics, and Selfishness
  • Creating and Leveraging Innovation to Solve Problems
  • Respect and Honor Family and Life Priorities
  • Intentionally Impacting Others Through Profits and Servanthood
  • Steadfast Commitment to Doing the Right Thing

“From day one, we created Candoris to be a different kind of company, doing what’s right for customers, partners, team members, and the world. We believe that the minute you make dollars the deciding factor, you do things that hurt your culture — which impacts everything.” 

– Stephan Van Der Ploog, Founder, Candoris

The Candoris team early in 2020

Storytelling the Mission

Candoris has quietly gone about doing what’s right for team members and their families, the poor, and the marginalized for years. They decided to begin showcasing the mission through the lens that it’s viewed through — that their giving is only possible because of customers, partner companies, and team members. The team began talking about their involvement in local communities and around the world because they recognized that people care, and because humans are impacted by understanding the heartbeat of the organization, the story of the why behind the how.

Driven by a desire to be authentic and transparent and to share their story, Candoris just published its first social impact/giving report. They call it the Sine Cera Report, as the term sine cera (sincere, authentic…without wax) is core to who they are as a company and their founding values. The O in the Candoris logo was designed to represent the layers of a hand-thrown clay pot. In the ancient world, artists and merchants took to differentiating authentic pottery from defective, wax-filled pieces by stamping them with the words sine cera, or without wax. Only authentic pottery could withstand fire and be used as cookware without melting apart, and so this became a measure of authenticity.

A worksite team from Nate Kirby Day 2018

The pages of this report highlight 2019’s opportunities to get involved with initiatives that illuminate the world with passion and talent. It features Nate Kirby Day — an annual day of service inspired by a departed friend and colleague who modeled servant leadership— when the team gathers together to serve local nonprofits. They report on annual and to-date hours of corporate paid volunteer time off (VTO) that Candorians have used to serve nonprofits of their choosing. The report also showcases the beautiful missions of organizations that we partnered with philanthropically and offered high-level insights into our other community impact initiatives.

A worksite team from Nate Kirby Day 2019

The Sustainability of Shared Values

Candoris recognized an opportunity to be part of a larger corporate philanthropy movement for doing good and joined forces with Pledge 1%. Using business as a platform for change is truly sparking a force for doing a world of good. Purpose beyond profit fosters a community of people and companies united around a common goal: focusing outward toward a sustainable future.

Existing to Make a Difference

At Candoris, we use the word mission a lot — the mission of our company, our team, our customers, and the nonprofits we partner with. But it’s not just a word to us. Our reason for creating Candoris and the reason that our people are passionate about their daily work is to make a difference in the lives of colleagues, clients, communities, and those less fortunate. By leveraging technology, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction, we strive to impact the world by strengthening those who need it most.

“Our desire is for Candoris to make a difference with our technology, our expertise, and our mission. At the end of the day, every decision we make will have to stand the test of why we did what we did with the gifts we were given.”

— Stephan Van Der Ploog

Learn more about Candoris on AppExchange.


Originally published on May 11, 2020, in the Salesforce AppExchange publication on Medium