Sam Fender has handed over the complete sum of his £25,000 award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to protect the Britain's independent music venues.
He was given the prize on 16 October as his third album his work was named the top album of the last 12 months.
He has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in recognition of the essential function grassroots venues played in his beginning days.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing my current career if it weren't for all the shows I did around the area, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," said Sam Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, more than 150 of these locations have ceased operations – roughly one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
Recently, well-known musicians such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which supports smaller concert halls.
Fender also participated, raising in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to help thirty-eight local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation supported locations that were facing possible closure due to issues stemming from water damage, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and noise complaints.
Other venues obtained monetary aid in improving amenities and technical equipment that helped performers and audiences.
"The concept that money from performances in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just logical," Fender has commented.
He is not the first artist to donate his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.
When Pulp earned the prize in 1996 for their album the album, vocalist the singer declared that the band would give their winnings to the organization War Child.
That year, artist she split her award between several organizations, like the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"And I contributed a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," Ms Dynamite explained to outlets.
Two years ago, they gave their prize money to the youth organization that supported their band, as well as other local music groups.
Also 1994 winners the group donated their winnings to a MS organization after a acquaintance was found to have the illness.
"Winning was sufficient," stated vocalist Heather Small. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the honor. So our success touched another person's life."
Last week, the MVT shared it had protected two small stages in that region, by transferring them to community ownership.
The Joiners in Southampton and the other in Bristol were acquired under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is backed by a national body and supporters who buy "stakes" in the venues.
