Sam Fender has donated the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound award prize money to the MVT, which works to protect the UK's grassroots concert spaces.
The star was awarded the award on mid-October as his latest record his work was chosen as the best record of the last 12 months.
He has decided to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the crucial part small stages played in his beginning days.
"I personally wouldn't be doing my current career if it wasn't for all the gigs I played around the North East, and beyond, when I was beginning," said the artist. "These venues are legendary, but they are facing challenges."
From early 2023 onward, more than 150 of these locations have ceased operations – roughly 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, major artists such as the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its initiatives to keep the scene afloat, by adding a small levy to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.
He also took part, collecting more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation assisted spaces that were dealing with possible closure due to difficulties caused by floods, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.
Other venues obtained monetary aid in upgrading facilities and technical equipment that helped performers and fans.
"The concept that money from concerts in big venues backs the local stages, where it all starts for performers like me, is just sensible," Fender has commented.
He is not the first artist to donate his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.
When Pulp received the trophy in the year 1996 for their album Different Class, frontman Cocker announced that the group would contribute their cash to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, artist she split her prize between a few charities, such as the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I contributed a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," she told a publication.
In recent years, they gave their funds to the community center that supported their act, alongside other independent music bodies.
Additionally 1994 winners M People gave their prize to a charity for MS after a friend was found to have the disease.
"The victory was sufficient," stated singer Small. "The money was the cherry on top but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our victory impacted somebody else's life."
In the past week, the trust revealed it had saved two grassroots venues in south-east England, by transferring them to local control.
The Joiners in Southampton and the second in that location were purchased under the public acquisition initiative, which is backed by a national body and music fans who acquire "shares" in the venues.
