Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his £25k Mercury Prize winnings to the MVT, which works to save the Britain's grassroots music venues.
He was given the prize on 16 October as his third album the album was chosen as the top album of the past year.
The musician has chosen to give the cash to the MVT, in recognition of the crucial part grassroots venues played in his early career.
"I wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it weren't for all the performances I did around the region, and beyond, when I was beginning," said Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these venues have shut down – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.
In the last year, well-known musicians such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by applying a small levy to their ticket costs, which goes to help local stages.
Fender also participated, generating in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to assist thirty-eight small stages across Britain.
These funds supported venues that were dealing with potential shutdown due to challenges stemming from floods, blazes and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and noise complaints.
Additional spaces obtained monetary aid in upgrading amenities and sound and lighting systems that positively impacted musicians and concertgoers.
"The notion that funds from performances in large arenas backs the independent spots, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.
Fender is far from the only musician to donate his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
When the band earned the award in the mid-90s for their album the album, frontman Jarvis Cocker stated that the group would contribute their cash to the non-profit War Child.
In 2002, musician she shared her prize among multiple good causes, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they required new equipment," the artist explained to the media.
In recent years, they contributed their winnings to the local youth club that developed their act, alongside other grassroots music organisations.
Also winners that year they gave their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was diagnosed the condition.
"Receiving the award was sufficient," remarked vocalist Small. "The prize was the extra but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our winning touched somebody else's life."
Last week, the MVT shared it had rescued two grassroots venues in the South East, by placing them under public stewardship.
The Joiners in that area and the other in the city were purchased under the community ownership initiative, which is funded by a national body and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the venues.
