Back in March, Lending Club launched its first ever Lending Club Photo Contest to celebrate our new site and brand.  We invited all professional and amateur photographers to submit up to 4 photographs for a chance to win the $1,000 first place prize and many other prizes.  The response was fantastic with more than 250 pictures submitted, and over 300 votes during final face of the contest on Facebook.

Today, we present you the winners and honorary mentions:

1st Place / $1,000 prize:
The Promise by J. Griffin Stewart (103 votes)

2nd Place / $500 prize:
Mountainside Beauty by Greg Hahner (61 votes)

3rd Place / $300 prize:
Hidden Beach by Michelle C (55 votes)

Honorary Mention #1 ($100 prize):
Green and White by Larry McCloskey

Honorary Mention #2 ($100 prize):
Clean Whitewashing by Peter Anderson

Honorary Mention #3 ($100 prize):
Cloud Bells by Andy Cook

Congratulations to all winners.  See all 15 finalists on our Facebook fan page.

@RobGarciaSJ

We are thrilled to announce the top 15 photographs of our first Lending Club Photo Contest.

More than 250 photos from hundreds of artists were submitted, making the final selection even more arduous...  so arduous, we could not keep it to just 10.

We invite you to vote for your favorite photograph(s) on our Facebook fan page before July 15th, 2010.  To vote, just leave a comment on or "like" the photograph you'd like to see win, directly on our Facebook fan page (you must be a Lending Club Facebook fan to vote).

VOTE NOW>>

Last week, Lending Club unveiled its new financial offering, 5-year Notes, to our fast-growing financial network, rapidly capturing the attention and interest of investors.  These represent 60-month loans made to creditworthy borrowers under the same stringent credit policy that has made our site an attractive investment.

In today's webcast, we have invited our own Rob Garcia, Sr. Director of Product Strategy, to share with us more about 5-year Notes and their benefits to investors:

• More investment options,
• Greater control, and
• The opportunity to earn more interest while diversifying across terms.

Rob will also provide a quick introduction on how peer investing works, an update on Lending Club's growth and performance, and an overview of investor tools.  You'll have the chance to ask questions online and learn about new Lending Club developments. This WebCast is offered at no cost to Lending Club Investors.

Upcoming WebCast: Introducing 5-year Notes

Register Now >>>

Limited space, so save your spot today.
Wednesday, May 19th
3:00pm PT (6:00pm ET)

See you there,
Sam Kasle
Sr Director, Marketing

Nearly 100 Lending Club investors attended our WebCast this week to learn more about investing in Lending Club Notes and get smarter about P2P investing in general. We believe they may have found a better place to stash their cash. Patrick Gannon, SVP Investor Services, and I, Sam Kasle shared tips on how to maximize your return, properly diversify, and how streamline your investment process. Rob Garcia, our Sr Director of Product Strategy, moderated a lively Q&A session where we addressed many investor questions such as how Lending Club handles collections, statistics around defaults, and details on our PRIME and IRA offerings. Lending Club notes are offer by prospectus filed with the SEC.

Smart about investing, but want to Get Smarter? Check out the replay of the forum here.

We also have more great WebCasts and events in the works.  Go to our events page for latest schedule and reserve your spot in advance.

Sam Kasle

Lending Club is hosting our 4th twitter contest, and this time we'll have the most winners ever.

How to enter and win

Tweet daily about Lending Club's Photo Contest during the month of April, and we will select a winner (randomly) each and every day!

Prizes, prizes, prizes

You'll have your choice of prize: pick some of the classic Lending Club garb in black and orange (t-shirts, messenger bags, drawstring sport sacks, caps, etc) or treat yourself to one of our newly branded tees in 4 fab colors pictured here.

What to tweet

When tweeting, make sure you include a link to this post or to our contest page, as well as the hashtag #LCPhoto to make it easy for us to count you in.

Sample tweets:

Enter Lending Club Photo Contest or RT tweet 2 win http://ow.ly/1w2Tj #LCPhoto

Enter Lending Club Photo Contest: $2,500+ in prizes http://ow.ly/1w2Tj #LCPhoto RT tweet 2 win

Lending Club's April Tweeter Contest http://ow.ly/1w5uf Follow @LendingClub and RT to win #LCPhoto

... or just tweet your thoughts about Lending Club (just include a link and hashtag). Winners announced daily via @LendingClub's twitter page around 10:00am PT.

Tweet abundantly.  Good luck!

@RobGarciaSJ