San Francisco, Calif. — September 30, 2009 — 3banana Inc., a leading innovator of mobile information capture solutions, announced today the winners of the “Share to Win” challenge.

The challenge, launched this September, was sponsored by 3banana as a philanthropic crowdsourcing contest helping health, environment and education focused non-profit organizations raise money and exposure for their respective causes while testing the sharing features of the company’s online and mobile note-taking software.

Over 50 non-profit organizations were nominated to the challenge. Each cause created a note on 3banana describing why people should care about their mission and then shared a link to their note through Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and email. 3banana selected the winners based on the number of unique users who wrote an online comment endorsing the cause.

The winners are:

• The SENS Foundation – Grand prize: $5,000 – Develops and promotes widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of aging.
• Los Angeles Habilitation House – Second Prize: $2,000 – Helps create and maintain jobs for persons with disabilities and veterans with PTSD or traumatic brain injury.
• Disaster Accountability Project – Third Prize, Environment: $1,000 – Improves disaster management systems through public accountability, citizen oversight and empowerment, whistle-blower engagement, and policy research and advocacy.
• Art in All of Us – Third Prize, Education: $1,000 – Promotes tolerance and cultural exchanges by creative and art activities in schools around the world.
• Institute of HeartMath – Third Prize, Health: $1,000 – Researches stress, emotional physiology, and the heart-brain interaction to improve health, well being and quality of life.

Special mentions to the many great organizations that used Share To Win as an opportunity to rally supporters and spread their mission on social networks: Friends of Kibera, Model UN Society of the University of Essex, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Digital Democracy, Engineers Without Borders, The Magical Bridge, Dexterity Sports and Literacy, Project READ and many others. More detailed information on all of the participating non-profits can be found at http://3banana.com/corp/share-to-win-results

“We are very honored to accept this prize. This contest has really opened our eyes to the possibilities of furthering our cause using social networks,” said Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer for the SENS Foundation. “Thousands of our supporters shared their words of encouragement for our mission, and this effort has created more dialog between our organization and our supporters.”

The Share to Win challenge created an opportunity for non-profit organizations to learn about cost-effective and viral ways to generate conversation around their efforts. “Share to Win gave us a new way to reach out, and also a way to hear from our supporters,” said Guido Piccarolo, President and Co-founder of the Los Angeles Habilitation House. “It was just incredible to see the outpouring of statements of support for our mission.”

3banana makes it easy to create a discussion around an idea without the formality or complexity of a blog. Users can capture thoughts by jotting a note freeform and then organize ideas with in-line hashtags, just like on Twitter. Each note, when shared, becomes its own mini webpage and discussion forum. 3banana is available for free online and for iPhone and Android smartphones.

“There are two main ingredients to be successful in the new socially connected world: An idea worth spreading and a core group of passionate people willing to light a fire online,” said Steve Brown, CEO of 3banana. “We are really excited about the outcome and the awareness this challenge has generated for these great organizations, and we look forward continuing to develop new approaches using social technologies to help people capture and share their ideas.”

About 3banana
3banana Inc. creates smartphone and web applications that capture and share information effortlessly, wirelessly and securely. 3banana Notes are less work and easier to share than any other smartphone or online note taking application available today. Combining patent-pending innovations in semantics and social media with fast, efficient and secure wireless information capture, 3banana mobile and web applications help people become more productive and more connected. For more information, please visit http://3banana.com. 3banana Notes is currently available as a free download in the Google Android App Market and in the iPhone App Store.

3banana®, HeartMath®, Facebook®, Twitter® are registered trademarks. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact:
Shawn Cunningham
shawn [at] 3banana [dot] com
415-637-0800

Over fifty non-profit causes have been nominated for Share To Win challenge as of Wednesday, September 23, 2009. 3banana launched the contest as a beta test while helping non-profits spread their message and earn donations from 3banana.

Here is the list of nominees, together with the link to the nomination note on 3banana.com and the number of endorsements.

3banana will donate a total of $10,000 at the end of September to causes based on their ability to demonstrate support online. We are doing this as a “Beta that gives back”, testing the new sharing functions in 3banana. You only need a valid email address to participate, which we promise not to share with anyone.

There are still four days left to vote on your favorite cause. The top causes will win donations from 3banana just by giving our free online notebook a test drive and using it to share their mission.

To nominate a cause, simply start a free notebook at 3banana and create a note that answers the question: “Why should people care about my cause?” Then share the link to your note with your friends and supporters via email, Twitter and Facebook asking to endorse your cause by leaving a comment. The causes with the most endorsements from can win donations.

For suggestions and tips on how to increase your chances of winning, see the note at http://bit.ly/wintip. For more details on how to enter Share To Win, click http://bit.ly/sharetowin. For frequently asked questions, see http://bit.ly/sharefaq.

If you nominated a cause by creating a 3banana note and you don’t see your cause on this list, please click “share” below your note and email the URL to us at sharetowin at gmail.com. Each note you create in 3banana is completely private until you decide to share it by emailing the note URL or posting it on sites like Twitter or Facebook.

Share To Win Nominees as of Wednesday, September 23, 2009