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The star has given the complete sum of his £25,000 honor prize money to the trust for venues, which functions to preserve the UK's small music venues.

The star was presented with the cheque on October 16 as his latest record People Watching was named the outstanding release of the previous year.

Fender has chosen to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role local spots had in his beginning days.

"I personally couldn't be pursuing what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I played around the region, and beyond, when I was starting out," remarked the artist. "These spaces are renowned, but they are in difficulty."

From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these venues have shut down – about 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

In the last year, major artists including Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which supports independent venues.

Fender also joined in, raising in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to support thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.

These funds assisted spaces that were dealing with potential shutdown due to difficulties arising from water damage, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and noise complaints.

Some locations received funding support in modernizing infrastructure and technical equipment that positively impacted musicians and fans.

"The notion that funds from concerts in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it kicks off for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.

The musician is among several artists to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to charitable organizations.

When the band received the prize in the mid-90s for their release the album, frontman Cocker stated that the band would contribute their prize money to the non-profit War Child.

That year, rapper and singer the artist divided her prize across a few organizations, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"Additionally, I gave a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they needed updated gear," she shared with a publication.

In recent years, they gave their funds to the youth organization that supported their group, alongside other local music groups.

Also 1994 winners M People donated their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was found to have the disease.

"Winning was quite enough," said artist the singer. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the cake. So our winning affected somebody else's life."

Recently, the MVT shared it had protected a couple of small stages in that region, by placing them under community ownership.

One venue in that area and the second in Bristol were bought under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by Arts Council England and supporters who buy "shares" in the properties.