Sam Fender has given the entirety of his £25k Mercury Prize winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the UK's grassroots music venues.
The star was awarded the award on 16 October as his latest record the album was chosen as the outstanding release of the past year.
Fender has chosen to donate the funds to the MVT, in appreciation of the vital role small stages had in his early career.
"I personally wouldn't be doing this success if it weren't for all the performances I did around the North East, and beyond, when I was starting out," said Sam Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are in difficulty."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these venues have permanently closed – roughly 16 percent of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, major artists like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its initiatives to keep the scene afloat, by including a modest fee to their ticket prices, which supports local stages.
Fender also participated, raising over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight local spots across the UK.
These funds helped venues that were facing imminent closure due to challenges caused by water damage, fires and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and sound issues.
Other venues obtained monetary aid in modernizing amenities and gear that directly benefitted performers and audiences.
"The notion that money from performances in major spaces backs the local stages, where it all starts for artists like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has said.
The musician is not the first artist to donate his award prize money to worthy causes.
Back when Pulp won the trophy in the year 1996 for their record their work, frontman Cocker declared that the group would donate their cash to the charity War Child.
That year, artist Ms Dynamite shared her bounty among a few organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I donated a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," the artist explained to a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective contributed their funds to the community center that supported their group, in addition to other independent music bodies.
Additionally 1994 winners the group donated their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a acquaintance was diagnosed the illness.
"The victory was sufficient," stated vocalist Heather Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted somebody else's life."
In the past week, the trust shared it had rescued a couple of grassroots venues in the South East, by transferring them to public stewardship.
The first in the city and The Croft in Bristol were bought under the community ownership initiative, which is funded by a national body and enthusiasts who buy "shares" in the venues.
