Sam Fender has donated the entirety of his £25k award winnings to the trust for venues, which operates to protect the Britain's small concert spaces.
He was given the award on October 16 as his third album People Watching was declared the outstanding release of the previous year.
Fender has chosen to give the cash to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role grassroots venues played in his beginning days.
"I personally would not have achieved my current career if it weren't for all the gigs I performed around the area, and beyond, when I was starting out," remarked Fender. "These spaces are renowned, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have permanently closed – roughly one-sixth of the total UK scene.
Over the past year, major artists like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by applying a modest fee to their ticket prices, which supports local stages.
He also joined in, raising over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to support thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.
The money helped venues that were dealing with imminent closure due to challenges arising from floods, fires and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and noise complaints.
Additional spaces obtained monetary aid in improving facilities and technical equipment that directly benefitted artists and concertgoers.
"The concept that revenue from concerts in major spaces backs the smaller venues, where it begins for performers like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has said.
The musician is among several artists to contribute his Mercury Prize prize money to charitable organizations.
In they won the prize in the year 1996 for their release Different Class, lead singer Cocker declared that the group would donate their winnings to the charity War Child.
During 2002, artist she divided her award across several charities, such as the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"And I donated a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," she told a publication.
In recent years, they donated their funds to the community center that developed their band, as well as other local music groups.
Additionally winners that year the group contributed their prize to a MS organization after a acquaintance was diagnosed the illness.
"The victory was ample," stated singer Small. "The money was the bonus but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the cake. So our victory affected somebody else's life."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust announced it had protected two grassroots venues in south-east England, by bringing them into local control.
The Joiners in Southampton and the second in that location were bought under the public acquisition program, which is supported by the arts council and enthusiasts who acquire "ownership units" in the buildings.
