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The artist has donated the full amount of his £25,000 honor prize money to the trust for venues, which works to preserve the United Kingdom's small concert spaces.

The star was awarded the award on mid-October as his third album his work was declared the best record of the past year.

Fender has chosen to hand the money over to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages had in his beginning days.

"I personally would not have achieved this success if it hadn't been for all the gigs I played around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," said Sam Fender. "These venues are renowned, but they are struggling."

From early 2023 onward, more than 150 of these locations have ceased operations – approximately one-sixth of the entire UK sector.

In the last year, major artists like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which goes to help local stages.

Fender also took part, generating in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to assist numerous grassroots venues across Britain.

The money assisted venues that were dealing with potential shutdown due to issues arising from floods, fires and family tragedies, as well as licensing issues, court cases and neighbor objections.

Additional spaces were granted financial assistance in improving facilities and sound and lighting systems that helped artists and fans.

"The notion that revenue from shows in big venues backs the independent spots, where it begins for artists like me, is just logical," Fender has said.

Fender is among several artists to give his Mercury Prize funds to charitable organizations.

Back when they earned the trophy in the mid-90s for their album their work, frontman Cocker declared that the group would give their winnings to the organization War Child.

During 2002, musician the artist split her prize among multiple good causes, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"And I donated a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," the artist shared with outlets.

Previously, Ezra Collective gave their winnings to the youth organization that developed their group, as well as other grassroots music organisations.

Additionally the 1994 recipients they gave their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was found to have the illness.

"The victory was ample," remarked artist the singer. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the honor. So our winning impacted the lives of others."

Recently, the trust revealed it had protected several grassroots venues in that region, by bringing them into local control.

The first in that area and The Croft in that location were acquired under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by a national body and music fans who buy "shares" in the venues.