The artist has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 Mercury Prize cash to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to preserve the United Kingdom's grassroots concert spaces.
Fender was presented with the prize on 16 October as his third album People Watching was declared the top album of the past year.
Fender has decided to hand the money over to the MVT, in appreciation of the essential function grassroots venues played in his beginning days.
"I personally wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I performed around the area, and further afield, when I was just getting going," stated Fender. "These venues are iconic, but they are struggling."
Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have shut down – about 16 percent of the total UK scene.
Over the past year, top acts such as the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed 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 independent venues.
Sam Fender also joined in, collecting over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to support 38 local spots across the UK.
These funds assisted venues that were confronting possible closure due to challenges stemming from water damage, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, conflicts and noise complaints.
Other venues were granted financial assistance in modernizing infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that positively impacted musicians and audiences.
"The notion that revenue from performances in big venues supports the smaller venues, where it kicks off for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.
He is among several artists to give his award winnings to worthy causes.
Back when they won the award in 1996 for their album their work, lead singer Cocker declared that the band would contribute their cash to the charity War Child.
That year, musician the artist split her prize between multiple organizations, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I contributed a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they required updated gear," Ms Dynamite explained to a publication.
In recent years, they contributed their winnings to the community center that developed their act, as well as other independent music bodies.
Additionally winners that year M People gave their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was diagnosed the disease.
"Winning was sufficient," stated artist the singer. "The cash was the extra but we didn't need the extra, because we had the cake. So our success touched the lives of others."
Last week, the trust announced it had rescued two local spots in that region, by bringing them into local control.
The Joiners in that area and The Croft in that location were acquired under the Own Our Venues program, which is supported by Arts Council England and music fans who purchase "stakes" in the properties.
