Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25k honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which works to preserve the United Kingdom's small live music spots.
He was presented with the cheque on October 16 as his latest record the album was declared the top album of the past year.
Fender has chosen to give the cash to the MVT, in appreciation of the essential function grassroots venues fulfilled in his early career.
"I personally wouldn't be doing my current career if it wasn't for all the performances I played around the area, and beyond, when I was beginning," remarked Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have permanently closed – roughly one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, top acts like the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a small levy to their admission fees, which supports independent venues.
Sam Fender also joined in, generating more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight small stages across the UK.
These funds helped locations that were facing imminent closure due to difficulties arising from flooding, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.
Additional spaces obtained funding support in upgrading facilities and technical equipment that directly benefitted artists and concertgoers.
"The idea that funds from performances in large arenas supports the smaller venues, where it begins for musicians like me, is just logical," Fender has said.
Fender is among several artists to give his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
In they won the prize in 1996 for their album Different Class, vocalist Cocker declared that the act would give their winnings to the charity War Child.
In 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite split her award among multiple good causes, such as the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I donated a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked new equipment," she told a publication.
Two years ago, they contributed their funds to the youth organization that supported their band, alongside other local music groups.
And 1994 winners they gave their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was identified with the condition.
"The victory was quite enough," stated artist the singer. "The prize was the cherry on top but we could do without the bonus, because we had the cake. So our victory affected another person's life."
Last week, the trust announced it had rescued several grassroots venues in that region, by transferring them to local control.
One venue in that area and the second in Bristol were acquired under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is supported by Arts Council England and music fans who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.
