Meet Wes Hurt & Julie McElrath of the CLEAN Cause Foundation
This Q&A, facilitated by Jeremiah Gardner of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, was originally published for Hazelden Betty Ford’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive our advocacy emails, subscribe today.
When someone buys a can of CLEAN Cause sparkling organic yerba mate, 50% of net profits (or 5% of net revenues, whichever is greater) go to the CLEAN Cause Foundation, a nonprofit that uses those funds to help people access safe, supportive recovery housing. In just a few short years, Austin, Texas-based CLEAN Cause — whose supporters include Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Macklemore — has generated more than $1.8 million to support people’s recovery. And earlier this fall, the CLEAN Cause Foundation, led by founder and CEO Wes Hurt and president and chief cause officer Julie McElrath, was honored with Faces & Voices of Recovery’s 2022 Innovations in Recovery Award. At Hazelden Betty Ford, we know how important recovery housing is to the people we serve nationwide, and how scarce funding is for this essential resource. We were happy to check in with Julie and Wes to learn more about CLEAN Cause, the CLEAN Cause Foundation, and their dreams and passionate support for recovery housing.
How and when did CLEAN Cause, the beverage brand, get started, and how and when did the CLEAN Cause Foundation get started? What is the relationship between the two?
WES: CLEAN Cause, Inc. was founded in 2015 and is a mission-first venture whereby 50% of net profits (or 5% net revenue, whichever is greater) support individuals in pursuing recovery from alcohol and other drug addictions through its recovery home scholarships. In the first months of my own sobriety, I found resolve in knowing that I wanted my career to have an explicit North Star — to help others recover. I had lived experience and had seen firsthand how the addiction crisis was affecting families across the country. I wanted to do something about it. Enter CLEAN Cause and our initiative to help provide supportive structures to facilitate long-term recovery and recovery housing — a critical part of the solution.
JULIE: The foundation moved into action in the fall of 2021 with the founding purpose to act as a trustee for giveback funds generated by CLEAN Cause, Inc. With the recent formation of the CLEAN Cause Foundation, we are taking this support and investing it in impact-driven solutions — the continued funding of recovery housing scholarships and other initiatives that promote best practices, further research, and support-systems change. We like to say that, “The CLEAN brand is equal parts product and purpose.”
How do people apply for recovery housing scholarships from the CLEAN Cause Foundation, who is eligible to apply, and what data can you share about the number of applications received and funded?
JULIE: Several hundred applications are received each month and, to date, we have awarded 3,667 scholarships valued at more than $1,833,595. Individuals from across the U.S. who are transitioning into recovery housing can apply for a scholarship on our CLEAN Cause Foundation website.
What new is on the horizon for the CLEAN Cause Foundation, and what longer-term hopes and dreams do you have for the cause of recovery housing?
JULIE: We envision a world where everyone with a substance use disorder has what they need to support their recovery journey. Through collaborative relationships with community, research, education, and advocacy experts, our primary initiatives focus on:
- delivering a rigorous recovery housing scholarship program that focuses on high quality and supportive living environments for people in early recovery;
- collaborating with subject matter experts to further research, data, and best practices around recovery homes, and contribute to the development of evidence-based practices and a high standard of substance use disorder care and recovery; and
- driving change around addiction and recovery with a special focus on the impact of recovery housing and related systems change.
I am excited to share that the CLEAN Cause Foundation has recently been awarded $1 million in funding and is partnering with the Addiction Research Institute, which is part of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas in Austin, to develop an intervention that will facilitate recovery housing sustainability.
Julie, this cause isn’t just a professional endeavor for you; it’s personal, too. How so? And how did you come to be involved with CLEAN Cause?
JULIE: In 2013, I served on an exploration committee with a group of community members passionate about adolescent recovery, which led to the founding of Central Texas’ first recovery high school. I supported this organization as Executive Director for several years and currently serve on the national Association of Recovery Schools’ Board of Directors. I have personal experience with addiction and recovery through both my immediate and extended family and, through my work over the past several years, I have seen firsthand the impact of the disease of addiction and also the beauty in recovery. I met Wes in 2015, shortly after he started CLEAN Cause, and it has been an honor to witness the positive changes CLEAN has made in the recovery community over the past several years. When he approached me about the formation of the CLEAN Cause Foundation, I knew almost immediately that this was the next leg of my journey in the field.
How is Ben Haggerty, aka the music artist Macklemore, involved with CLEAN Cause?
WES: This past year, CLEAN Cause joined forces with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Macklemore who became CLEAN Cause’s first Creative Director. As a beverage brand on a mission to support individuals in recovery, our partnership with Macklemore — who has long been an advocate for the power of recovery and candid about his own struggles — was a natural fit. Macklemore’s creativity and artistry were on full display with the creation of a special Limited Edition can he designed, and we’re very grateful for his support of CLEAN Cause on social media. The shared alignment has been so strong that he also became CLEAN Cause’s first celebrity investor.
CLEAN Cause is not just a leader in supporting recovery but a leader in a new kind of cause-oriented entrepreneurship and marketing. What is significant about that, in your view?
WES: There’s an old saying that goes, “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” We felt compelled to attack the epidemic with a bold and provocative approach — to bring conversations around addiction and recovery into everyday mainstream culture. After all, addiction negatively affects everyone — every single person, in some way, shape or form. The challenge America faces to course-correct this downward spiral is immense — so we need to throw everything we have at it.
