Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25k honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to protect the Britain's grassroots concert spaces.
Fender was presented with the cheque on 16 October as his third album People Watching was chosen as the best record of the last 12 months.
He has opted to donate the funds to the MVT, in recognition of the essential function local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing this success if it hadn't been for all the gigs I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," stated Sam Fender. "These venues are iconic, but they are facing challenges."
Beginning in 2023, over 150 of these spaces have shut down – about one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
Recently, well-known musicians including Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Sheeran have all aided the trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their ticket costs, which supports local stages.
Sam Fender also participated, generating over £100k on his live tour to assist numerous local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The money assisted locations that were confronting potential shutdown due to issues arising from floods, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.
Some locations obtained financial assistance in upgrading infrastructure and technical equipment that helped performers and concertgoers.
"The concept that revenue from shows in big venues helps the independent spots, where it all starts for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.
Fender is not the first artist to donate his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.
In the band won the prize in the year 1996 for their album the album, lead singer Cocker announced that the group would give their winnings to the non-profit the charity.
In 2002, rapper and singer she split her bounty across a few charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I gave a thousand pounds to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," Ms Dynamite told a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective contributed their prize money to the local youth club that supported their group, alongside other grassroots music organisations.
Additionally the 1994 recipients they gave their prize to a charity for MS after a close contact was diagnosed the illness.
"The victory was ample," remarked artist Small. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the cherry, because we had the cake. So our success impacted somebody else's life."
Recently, the MVT revealed it had protected a couple of local spots in that region, by bringing them into local control.
One venue in Southampton and The Croft in Bristol were acquired under the Own Our Venues program, which is backed by Arts Council England and enthusiasts who buy "shares" in the properties.
