Reese Witherspoon's brand Draper James is trying to make it up to teachers after facing backlash for its dress giveaway

• On April 2, Draper James announced it was giving free dresses to teachers across the country.
• By the end of the giveaway, Draper James had almost one million applications but only 250 dresses to gift.
• Some teachers are upset, saying the company wasn't clear that it only had a small number of dresses to give away.
• Marissa Cooley, senior vice president for brand marketing and creative at Draper James, told Insider the brand has plans to expand its initiative and reward more teachers in the coming weeks.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Reese Witherspoon's brand Draper James had good intentions when it announced it would be giving free dresses to teachers across the country, so it wasn't prepared for all the confusion and backlash that would soon follow.

In an Instagram post shared on April 2, Draper James asked teachers to submit their information via a Google form before April 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET for a chance to win a dress. The "Draper James ❤️Teachers" initiative was meant to show appreciation for their "tireless efforts during the COVID-19 quarantine."

"During quarantine, teachers are broadcasting lessons from their own homes and figuring out new remote-learning technology and platforms on the fly, all while continuing to educate and connect with our kids," Witherspoon said in a press release shared with Insider.

"Advocating for the children of the world is no easy task, so I wanted to show teachers a little extra love right now."

Teachers rushed to fill out the form and by the end of the giveaway, Draper James had almost a million applicants — and only 250 dresses to gift

Marissa Cooley, senior vice president for brand marketing and creative at Draper James, told Insider via email that the brand did "communicate the initial offering of 250 dresses through our press outreach," but they never anticipated the overwhelming response they would get.

"Once we realized we weren't able to handle the volume, we have been working around the clock to try and find other ways to honor this incredible community and address need to the best of our ability. It was all hands on deck," she stated.

In the initial press release Insider received, it didn't mention the number of dresses Draper James was going to be giving away. It wasn't until Insider followed up with a representative to confirm the number available before publishing the news that 250 came up.

But the thousands of hopeful teachers hearing about the giveaway from Draper James' Instagram wouldn't see that number. Instead, they would only see "while supplies last," so they applied.

"We could see from reading through comments and DMs that there might be a misunderstanding about the offer applying to ALL teachers, so we promptly posted two Instagram Stories on Friday and Saturday to clarify how the giveaway would work," Cooley told Insider.

"During the application process, we also promptly sent a confirmation email to everyone who applied to more clearly communicate the details of the program, explaining that we had 250 dresses earmarked for this initiative," she added.

Despite Draper James' efforts to clear up the miscommunication, the damage was already done, and some teachers say they felt cheated

"I don't think they were really clear from the beginning," Rachel Serpico, a high-school teacher in New Jersey, told Insider. "It was a nice thing to do, but it felt like a scheme. They changed their original messaging."

Tammy Petrie-Barnhill, a first-grade teacher in North Carolina, echoed Serpico's sentiment and said she doesn't blame other teachers for being upset.

"I saw no indication that it was for a drawing for only 250 dresses," she said. "I sent the link to several other teachers thinking we were all getting a dress."

"The contest was extremely misleading. I didn't even receive a coupon code like others did," Petrie-Barnhill added.

Skylar Schur, a high-school teacher in New York City, agreed that Draper James' initial announcement made it sound as if a lot more teachers were going to be getting a free dress.

"They said 'while supplies last,' but 250 is minuscule compared to the number of teachers in the country," Schur said. According to The New York Times, there are more than 3 million public-school teachers in the United States.

"I don't remember seeing that number when I tried to enter," Schur told Insider. "I think for teachers who were really excited about it, it should have been more clear."

Cooley said that after seeing the initial confusion, Draper James increased the unique promo code from 25% to 30%, and the brand is still working to email them out to all of the teachers who entered.

"We learned later from fielding inquiries via our customer care team and social DMs that many of these emails had gotten stuck in spam folders or had been entered in the original form with one or two characters off, resulting in misdelivery," she stated.

"We have been working tirelessly to rectify all of these inquiries on a one-to-one basis, and our customer care team has been providing 30% off codes to all teachers who did not receive their email," Cooley said.

Many teachers also expressed concern over giving Draper James access to their ID photos, a step that was required to enter the giveaway

"I was disappointed to feel it was just a publicity stunt to get our information," Erica Yonks, a high-school art teacher in New York City, said. "I expected more from Reese Witherspoon and Draper James."

Cooley made it clear to Insider that all IDs were deleted immediately.

"Everyone has the opportunity in every communication to unsubscribe from Draper James emails, but we have worked to make it as clear and simple as possible for anyone to opt-out from brand communications if they no longer want to hear from us," she said. "Consent is very important to us, so we did state at the outset that opting in to marketing communications was a condition of entry."

The teachers who did receive a free dress admitted they were really excited and felt appreciated

The lucky recipients got an email on April 7 with a unique promo code and a link to a private shopping page that would let them pick from the six different styles Draper James had to give away. Each style retails for $78.

In addition to a free dress, the winning teachers also received the same 30% promo code that those who didn't win have been emailed.

"One day I was doing some school work and I saw on my screen, 'You won a free dress!'" Diana Bryant, a second-grade teacher in New York City, told Insider. "I was a teacher who had never heard of Draper James before, and I love my dress. I will probably be going shopping on their website now, too."

Another winning teacher admitted she was sad to see that the good intentions Draper James had in gifting teachers a dress was being lost among the confusion.

"Draper James was doing something nice for teachers and it goes against what we are supposed to teach our students. Acts of kindness matter even if you don't benefit from them directly," Alexis Salomone, a second-grade teacher in Connecticut, told Insider.

"When there are teacher giveaways, they usually are things for our classrooms, which is just as nice to get, but it was nice to be noticed as just people," Salomone said.

Michelle Mustardo, a middle-school art teacher in New Jersey who also won, told Insider she thinks teachers need to realize that Witherspoon and the employees at Draper James were just trying to do their best.

"We should be building each other up and honoring the fact that there is a company out there giving us something pretty to wear for when we go back to school," she said. "Give Reese a break, she just did something good. She's a mother, her kids are home, she's in quarantine too, and here she is trying to run a business and do something nice and it is getting turned into something negative."

For Molly Moran, a middle-school teacher in Minnesota, winning a dress was an exciting experience because she had such a personal connection to Reese Witherspoon and Draper James. Moran told Insider the actress has actually been her idol for a long time.

"I was Elle Woods in a 'Legally Blonde' production when I was in high school," she said. "So when I had a really tough first year of teaching, my mom bought me a Draper James dress to make me feel powerful like Elle Woods, and now I actually won one of her dresses."

After the giveaway ended, both Draper James and Reese Witherspoon made a donation to Donors Choose, a nonprofit organization that allows people to donate directly to classroom projects at public schools

Charles Best, the founder of Donors Choose, told Insider that Witherspoon reached out to him personally before Easter weekend to donate. He also said Draper James is making an ongoing donation.

"Like so many of our partners, Reese and Draper James aren't disclosing the exact amount of their donation," Best said. "I can personally vouch for its scale and generosity. It's awesomely generous in size and scope."

The donation will cover the organization's Keep Kids Learning program, which is an ongoing program in New Orleans, Nashville, and Atlanta.

Through Keep Kids Learning, teachers at public schools where more than 90% of kids qualify for free or reduced lunches are given a $1,000 education credit to send personalized packages to their students in low-income households.

"There will still be funds available from their donation, so we are going to distribute them to randomly selected teachers all over America," Best added.

Draper James wants all teachers who entered to know that they apologize and are committed to expanding the initiative

"We are very sorry for any confusion," Cooley stated. "We hope that any misunderstanding doesn't eclipse the original intent: to draw awareness to teachers' heroic efforts — every day, but especially in this incredibly difficult time."

"We also learned that clarity is key. Moving forward, we would want to take more time to develop a concept like this and anticipate potential risks and challenges beyond the positive outcomes," she explained.

Cooley also said the company is working on ways to go beyond its initial offering by looking into safely securing more inventory from its four stores in Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia. The hope is to reward more teachers in the coming weeks.

"We've clearly struck a chord. And teachers are so deserving, now and always," Cooley said. "The point of this was to really highlight teachers' stories and draw attention to the work they're doing — to hear their stories, tell their stories and inspire gratitude for what they do."

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