Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25k Mercury Prize prize money to the MVT, which works to protect the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
Fender was given the award on mid-October as his new release People Watching was declared the top album of the previous year.
He has opted to hand the money over to the trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role local spots had in his initial steps.
"I personally couldn't be pursuing this success if it hadn't been for all the gigs I played around the area, and beyond, when I was starting out," remarked Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – about one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, major artists including Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the MVT in its initiatives to help venues survive, by adding a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports local stages.
Fender also took part, generating in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to help thirty-eight small stages across the UK.
The money assisted spaces that were confronting imminent closure due to challenges caused by floods, fires and family tragedies, as well as licensing issues, legal disputes and noise complaints.
Other venues obtained monetary aid in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that helped musicians and audiences.
"The concept that money from shows in large arenas supports the local stages, where it all starts for artists like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.
He is not the first artist to contribute his award funds to worthy causes.
In they received the prize in 1996 for their album Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would donate their winnings to the non-profit War Child.
In 2002, rapper and singer the artist divided her bounty across a few good causes, like the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"And I contributed a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," she shared with a publication.
In recent years, they donated their prize money to the youth organization that nurtured their act, in addition to other local music groups.
Additionally 1994 winners the group contributed their prize to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was identified with the condition.
"The victory was quite enough," remarked singer Heather Small. "The money was the extra but we didn't need the extra, because we had the cake. So our victory impacted somebody else's life."
In the past week, the MVT announced it had saved several local spots in that region, by placing them under local control.
One venue in the city and the other in Bristol were acquired under the community ownership program, which is funded by Arts Council England and enthusiasts who purchase "shares" in the buildings.
