The star has given the entirety of his £25,000 Mercury Prize winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which works to preserve the United Kingdom's independent music venues.
The star was awarded the award on October 16 as his third album the album was chosen as the top album of the past year.
He has decided to donate the funds to the MVT, in appreciation of the essential function local spots played in his early career.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing this success if it wasn't for all the performances I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," stated the artist. "These venues are renowned, but they are facing challenges."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – approximately 16% of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, major artists like the band Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports smaller concert halls.
Sam Fender also participated, raising in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to assist thirty-eight small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation helped spaces that were dealing with potential shutdown due to issues stemming from water damage, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces were granted funding support in improving facilities and technical equipment that directly benefitted musicians and audiences.
"The notion that money from concerts in major spaces backs the local stages, where it kicks off for musicians like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has commented.
He is far from the only musician to contribute his Mercury Prize winnings to worthy causes.
In the band earned the trophy in the mid-90s for their album their work, frontman Jarvis Cocker stated that the act would donate their prize money to the non-profit War Child.
In 2002, artist she shared her bounty among a few organizations, including the children's charity and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"I also gave a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," the artist shared with a publication.
In recent years, the band donated their prize money to the youth organization that supported their band, as well as other independent music bodies.
Also 1994 winners M People contributed their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a acquaintance was identified with the condition.
"Winning was quite enough," said vocalist the singer. "The prize was the extra but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected the lives of others."
Recently, the MVT revealed it had rescued several grassroots venues in the South East, by bringing them into community ownership.
The Joiners in Southampton and the second in Bristol were acquired under the Own Our Venues initiative, which is supported by the arts council and supporters who acquire "ownership units" in the properties.
