Sam Fender has handed over the complete sum of his £25,000 award prize money to the trust for venues, which functions to protect the United Kingdom's independent live music spots.
He was given the award on 16 October as his latest record his work was declared the outstanding release of the past year.
The musician has chosen to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the crucial part grassroots venues had in his beginning days.
"I personally would not have achieved my current career if it wasn't for all the shows I played around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," said Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are in difficulty."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have shut down – roughly 16% of the whole industry in the UK.
Recently, top acts including the band Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by applying a modest fee to their admission fees, which supports local stages.
He also participated, raising over £100k on his live tour to help thirty-eight local spots across Britain.
The donation assisted spaces that were facing imminent closure due to difficulties stemming from water damage, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, court cases and noise complaints.
Some locations were granted financial assistance in upgrading amenities and technical equipment that helped musicians and concertgoers.
"The concept that funds from performances in major spaces supports the smaller venues, where it all starts for performers like me, is just common sense," Fender has stated.
Fender is far from the only musician to give his award prize money to worthy causes.
When Pulp earned the trophy in the year 1996 for their album the album, lead singer the singer declared that the band would give their winnings to the organization the charity.
In 2002, artist the artist shared her award across several charities, like the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"I also gave a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked new equipment," Ms Dynamite told a publication.
Two years ago, they gave their funds to the youth organization that supported their group, alongside other grassroots music organisations.
Also 1994 winners M People contributed their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was identified with the condition.
"The victory was quite enough," stated artist Small. "The money was the cherry on top but we could do without the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our winning impacted somebody else's life."
Last week, the MVT announced it had saved a couple of small stages in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.
One venue in that area and the other in that location were purchased under the Own Our Venues initiative, which is backed by a national body and music fans who buy "shares" in the buildings.
