Sam Fender has donated the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize cash to the MVT, which operates to protect the United Kingdom's independent music venues.
He was presented with the prize on October 16 as his latest record People Watching was chosen as the best record of the past year.
Fender has decided to donate the funds to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing this success if it wasn't for all the gigs I played around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," said Sam Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – roughly one-sixth of the total UK scene.
Recently, major artists such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by applying a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which supports independent venues.
He also took part, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to support thirty-eight local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The money helped spaces that were confronting potential shutdown due to challenges caused by floods, fires and family tragedies, as well as licensing issues, court cases and neighbor objections.
Other venues obtained funding support in upgrading infrastructure and gear that directly benefitted performers and audiences.
"The concept that revenue from shows in big venues supports the smaller venues, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has commented.
Fender is far from the only musician to contribute his award winnings to good deeds.
When Pulp received the trophy in the year 1996 for their album their work, vocalist Cocker stated that the group would give their winnings to the charity War Child.
During 2002, artist Ms Dynamite divided her prize across a few organizations, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell charity.
"And I gave a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," she explained to a publication.
In recent years, the band contributed their funds to the youth organization that supported their band, alongside other local music groups.
Additionally 1994 winners M People donated their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a acquaintance was diagnosed the condition.
"Winning was sufficient," stated singer Heather Small. "The prize was the bonus but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our success impacted somebody else's life."
Recently, the Music Venues Trust announced it had rescued two grassroots venues in south-east England, by transferring them to community ownership.
The first in the city and the other in the city were acquired under the community ownership scheme, which is backed by a national body and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.
