Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25k honor prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the UK's grassroots concert spaces.
Fender was awarded the award on 16 October as his latest record the album was declared the best record of the previous year.
He has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages had in his initial steps.
"I personally would not have achieved this success if it hadn't been for all the performances I played around the region, and further afield, when I was just getting going," remarked Sam Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these venues have ceased operations – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.
Recently, major artists such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by applying a small levy to their admission fees, which goes to help local stages.
Fender also took part, generating in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist thirty-eight local spots across Britain.
The money assisted spaces that were confronting possible closure due to difficulties caused by floods, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and sound issues.
Some locations obtained financial assistance in modernizing facilities and gear that helped musicians and fans.
"The concept that funds from shows in major spaces backs the smaller venues, where it all starts for performers like me, is just logical," the star has said.
Fender is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to worthy causes.
When Pulp earned the prize in the year 1996 for their release Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker declared that the group would give their cash to the charity War Child.
In 2002, artist she shared her prize between several good causes, such as the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked new equipment," Ms Dynamite explained to a publication.
Two years ago, they contributed their prize money to the local youth club that developed their group, alongside other independent music bodies.
Also winners that year M People contributed their award to a charity for MS after a close contact was found to have the disease.
"The victory was ample," said artist Small. "The money was the extra but we didn't require the extra, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched somebody else's life."
Last week, the trust shared it had rescued a couple of grassroots venues in south-east England, by transferring them to public stewardship.
The Joiners in that area and the other in Bristol were bought under the public acquisition scheme, which is backed by the arts council and enthusiasts who buy "stakes" in the properties.