Sam Fender has given the full amount of his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the MVT, which works to preserve the Britain's grassroots concert spaces.
He was presented with the award on mid-October as his third album his work was chosen as the outstanding release of the last 12 months.
He has chosen to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in appreciation of the essential function small stages fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist would not have achieved my current career if it hadn't been for all the shows I did around the area, and further afield, when I was starting out," stated Sam Fender. "These spaces are renowned, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – roughly 16 percent of the total UK scene.
In the last year, well-known musicians like Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which benefits smaller concert halls.
He also joined in, collecting more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist 38 grassroots venues across Britain.
These funds assisted venues that were facing potential shutdown due to challenges arising from water damage, fires and personal losses, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and sound issues.
Some locations received funding support in improving amenities and sound and lighting systems that helped artists and fans.
"The notion that money from shows in major spaces helps the local stages, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.
Fender is among several artists to contribute his award prize money to good deeds.
In the band won the award in the mid-90s for their record the album, frontman Cocker stated that the group would donate their prize money to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, musician she split her bounty across a few good causes, such as the children's charity and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"And I contributed a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," Ms Dynamite shared with a publication.
In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their winnings to the community center that supported their group, alongside other grassroots music organisations.
Additionally the 1994 recipients the group gave their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was identified with the disease.
"The victory was sufficient," said vocalist Heather Small. "The prize was the bonus but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the honor. So our success touched the lives of others."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust shared it had protected a couple of small stages in south-east England, by placing them under community ownership.
The first in that area and the second in that location were bought under the public acquisition scheme, which is backed by the arts council and supporters who purchase "ownership units" in the venues.
