Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25k Mercury Prize cash to the MVT, which functions to save the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
He was presented with the award on mid-October as his latest record People Watching was declared the top album of the last 12 months.
He has chosen to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the crucial part small stages fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it hadn't been for all the gigs I performed around the region, and beyond, when I was just getting going," remarked the artist. "These venues are renowned, but they are facing challenges."
From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these spaces have shut down – roughly 16% of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its initiatives to help venues survive, by adding a modest fee to their ticket costs, which supports smaller concert halls.
Fender also joined in, collecting over £100k on his live tour to support numerous small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The money assisted locations that were confronting imminent closure due to difficulties stemming from flooding, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and noise complaints.
Other venues obtained financial assistance in improving infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted musicians and audiences.
"The idea that money from shows in major spaces backs the local stages, where it begins for artists like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.
He is far from the only musician to contribute his award winnings to good deeds.
When the band won the trophy in 1996 for their record the album, frontman Cocker declared that the band would give their winnings to the organization the charity.
That year, musician she divided her bounty across a few good causes, like the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"I also gave a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed new equipment," the artist explained to a publication.
Two years ago, Ezra Collective donated their prize money to the community center that developed their act, as well as other grassroots music organisations.
And winners that year they gave their prize to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was identified with the disease.
"Winning was quite enough," said singer Heather Small. "The prize was the extra but we could do without the cherry, because we had the honor. So our winning touched the lives of others."
Recently, the MVT shared it had saved a couple of grassroots venues in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.
One venue in that area and the other in Bristol were acquired under the public acquisition program, which is supported by the arts council and supporters who acquire "ownership units" in the buildings.
