Sam Fender has donated the full amount of his £25,000 award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which works to preserve the United Kingdom's small concert spaces.
Fender was presented with the prize on mid-October as his third album People Watching was declared the outstanding release of the past year.
The musician has opted to give the cash to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the essential function local spots played in his initial steps.
"I couldn't be pursuing my current career if it hadn't been for all the gigs I performed around the region, and beyond, when I was beginning," said Fender. "These venues are iconic, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these locations have permanently closed – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.
In the last year, major artists including the band Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its attempts to support the industry, by applying a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which goes to help smaller concert halls.
Fender also joined in, collecting more than £100,000 on his recent tour to help 38 grassroots venues across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation assisted venues that were dealing with potential shutdown due to issues arising from flooding, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, court cases and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces received financial assistance in upgrading amenities and technical equipment that directly benefitted musicians and audiences.
"The idea that funds from shows in big venues backs the independent spots, where it begins for musicians like me, is just common sense," Fender has said.
He is among several artists to contribute his Mercury Prize prize money to charitable organizations.
In the band received the award in 1996 for their release their work, vocalist Cocker stated that the group would donate their prize money to the organization War Child.
In 2002, rapper and singer she shared her prize among several charities, like the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"I also donated a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," she explained to outlets.
Two years ago, Ezra Collective gave their winnings to the community center that supported their band, as well as other local music groups.
And winners that year M People contributed their award to a MS organization after a friend was diagnosed the disease.
"The victory was sufficient," remarked singer the singer. "The prize was the extra but we could do without the extra, because we had the honor. So our success touched somebody else's life."
Recently, the trust shared it had rescued a couple of grassroots venues in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.
The first in Southampton and the other in the city were purchased under the community ownership scheme, which is supported by a national body and supporters who buy "stakes" in the properties.
