Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25,000 award winnings to the trust for venues, which operates to preserve the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
The star was presented with the prize on October 16 as his third album People Watching was declared the outstanding release of the previous year.
Fender has opted to donate the funds to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the vital role small stages had in his early career.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing what I am doing today if it hadn't been for all the shows I performed around the North East, and further afield, when I was beginning," said Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, over 150 of these locations have permanently closed – about one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, well-known musicians including Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by applying a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports smaller concert halls.
Fender also joined in, collecting over £100k on his live tour to support numerous grassroots venues across Britain.
The money assisted locations that were confronting imminent closure due to challenges stemming from flooding, blazes and bereavements, as well as permit problems, court cases and neighbor objections.
Other venues obtained financial assistance in modernizing infrastructure and gear that positively impacted musicians and fans.
"The idea that funds from shows in major spaces backs the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just logical," the star has said.
The musician is not the first artist to give his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
When the band earned the prize in the year 1996 for their release the album, frontman the singer declared that the group would donate their cash to the organization the charity.
During 2002, musician she divided her prize across multiple organizations, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I donated a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I did gymnastics when I was younger and they required new equipment," she shared with the media.
In recent years, Ezra Collective donated their funds to the local youth club that supported their band, in addition to other local music groups.
Also the 1994 recipients they contributed their prize to a MS organization after a acquaintance was identified with the disease.
"Receiving the award was sufficient," stated artist Heather Small. "The money was the extra but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the honor. So our winning touched the lives of others."
In the past week, the trust shared it had rescued several local spots in south-east England, by transferring them to public stewardship.
The first in Southampton and the other in Bristol were acquired under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is funded by Arts Council England and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.
