Sam Fender has given the entirety of his £25,000 honor winnings to the MVT, which operates to save the UK's grassroots concert spaces.
Fender was awarded the award on October 16 as his third album his work was declared the outstanding release of the past year.
He has opted to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the crucial part small stages fulfilled in his initial steps.
"I personally wouldn't be doing my current career if it hadn't been for all the shows I played around the area, and further afield, when I was just getting going," said Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are struggling."
Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – approximately 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, top acts such as Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a small levy to their admission fees, which supports local stages.
Sam Fender also participated, generating more than £100,000 on his recent tour to help 38 small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds helped spaces that were facing potential shutdown due to difficulties stemming from floods, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and sound issues.
Other venues received funding support in improving infrastructure and gear that helped artists and fans.
"The notion that funds from shows in big venues supports the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has commented.
The musician is far from the only musician to donate his honor winnings to worthy causes.
When Pulp won the award in the mid-90s for their record their work, vocalist Cocker declared that the group would contribute their prize money to the organization War Child.
That year, musician she split her award among several organizations, like the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"Additionally, I gave a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they required better apparatus," she told a publication.
In recent years, Ezra Collective donated their prize money to the youth organization that nurtured their group, as well as other independent music bodies.
Additionally 1994 winners M People contributed their prize to a MS organization after a close contact was identified with the disease.
"Winning was sufficient," remarked artist Heather Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we didn't need the extra, because we had the main prize. So our success affected the lives of others."
Recently, the Music Venues Trust shared it had rescued two small stages in the South East, by placing them under public stewardship.
The first in that area and the other in that location were bought under the public acquisition program, which is supported by Arts Council England and supporters who acquire "ownership units" in the venues.
