Sam Fender has donated the entirety of his £25,000 honor winnings to the MVT, which operates to preserve the United Kingdom's grassroots concert spaces.
Fender was awarded the award on mid-October as his third album his work was named the top album of the previous year.
The musician has opted to hand the money over to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the vital role small stages fulfilled in his early career.
"I would not have achieved my current career if it hadn't been for all the shows I performed around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," stated Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these locations have permanently closed – about one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
In the last year, well-known musicians including Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by applying a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which supports independent venues.
He also participated, generating more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to support thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.
The donation supported spaces that were confronting imminent closure due to challenges arising from flooding, blazes and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and noise complaints.
Additional spaces obtained monetary aid in improving infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that helped musicians and audiences.
"The notion that money from performances in major spaces backs the smaller venues, where it all starts for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.
He is not the first artist to donate his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.
In they won the trophy in the year 1996 for their record Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker announced that the group would donate their cash to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, rapper and singer the artist divided her award between multiple charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.
"Additionally, I contributed a grand to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they required better apparatus," the artist shared with outlets.
In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their prize money to the youth organization that developed their group, as well as other independent music bodies.
Additionally 1994 winners the group contributed their prize to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was found to have the illness.
"Winning was ample," said artist the singer. "The money was the extra but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the honor. So our winning affected the lives of others."
In the past week, the trust announced it had protected several small stages in south-east England, by placing them under community ownership.
The Joiners in that area and The Croft in that location were bought under the public acquisition scheme, which is backed by a national body and supporters who buy "stakes" in the venues.
