Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to save the United Kingdom's grassroots concert spaces.
He was given the award on October 16 as his third album his work was chosen as the best record of the past year.
Fender has chosen to hand the money over to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the crucial part local spots played in his early career.
"I personally wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it hadn't been for all the shows I performed around the area, and further afield, when I was beginning," said Sam Fender. "These venues are iconic, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, at least 150 of these locations have permanently closed – about 16% of the entire UK sector.
In the last year, well-known musicians like the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which supports local stages.
Sam Fender also took part, raising over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to assist thirty-eight local spots across the UK.
These funds assisted venues that were confronting potential shutdown due to difficulties stemming from water damage, fires and bereavements, as well as permit problems, court cases and neighbor objections.
Other venues were granted monetary aid in upgrading infrastructure and gear that directly benefitted performers and audiences.
"The idea that revenue from shows in large arenas backs the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has commented.
He is far from the only musician to donate his award winnings to worthy causes.
In Pulp earned the trophy in 1996 for their record their work, vocalist Jarvis Cocker declared that the band would donate their cash to the charity the charity.
That year, artist Ms Dynamite divided her prize among multiple good causes, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell charity.
"I also contributed a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," she shared with the media.
In recent years, they gave their funds to the youth organization that supported their group, alongside other local music groups.
And the 1994 recipients the group donated their award to a charity for MS after a close contact was identified with the illness.
"Winning was sufficient," said vocalist Heather Small. "The money was the extra but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the cake. So our victory affected somebody else's life."
In the past week, the MVT announced it had protected two local spots in south-east England, by transferring them to public stewardship.
One venue in Southampton and the second in Bristol were acquired under the Own Our Venues initiative, which is supported by the arts council and enthusiasts who acquire "shares" in the venues.
