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The artist has donated the full amount of his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to preserve the United Kingdom's small live music spots.

The star was presented with the cheque on October 16 as his third album People Watching was named the top album of the last 12 months.

Fender has opted to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role small stages played in his initial steps.

"I wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it weren't for all the gigs I played around the North East, and further afield, when I was just getting going," stated the artist. "These locations are iconic, but they are facing challenges."

Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these spaces have shut down – approximately 16 percent of the total UK scene.

In the last year, top acts like the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.

Sam Fender also took part, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to help numerous local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.

The money assisted venues that were confronting possible closure due to issues stemming from flooding, blazes and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and sound issues.

Some locations received financial assistance in modernizing infrastructure and technical equipment that helped artists and fans.

"The notion that revenue from performances in big venues backs the smaller venues, where it all starts for artists like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has said.

He is among several artists to give his award winnings to charitable organizations.

When the band earned the trophy in the mid-90s for their album the album, frontman Cocker stated that the group would donate their cash to the charity the charity.

During 2002, artist she shared her prize between several organizations, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"Additionally, I gave a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked better apparatus," the artist told the media.

In recent years, Ezra Collective donated their winnings to the local youth club that supported their act, in addition to other independent music bodies.

Additionally winners that year the group contributed their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was diagnosed the illness.

"The victory was sufficient," stated artist Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we could do without the bonus, because we had the cake. So our winning touched somebody else's life."

In the past week, the trust announced it had protected two local spots in that region, by transferring them to community ownership.

The first in Southampton and the other in Bristol were bought under the Own Our Venues initiative, which is funded by a national body and supporters who buy "stakes" in the properties.