Sam Fender has given the entirety of his £25,000 award cash to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to save the Britain's small live music spots.
He was given the prize on mid-October as his latest record People Watching was chosen as the outstanding release of the past year.
Fender has opted to hand the money over to the MVT, in recognition of the vital role local spots played in his early career.
"I personally couldn't be pursuing my current career if it weren't for all the performances I played around the area, and elsewhere, when I was starting out," remarked Fender. "These venues are legendary, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – roughly 16% of the entire UK sector.
In the last year, top acts like Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which goes to help smaller concert halls.
He also joined in, raising in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to support numerous grassroots venues across Britain.
The donation supported locations that were facing possible closure due to issues stemming from floods, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and neighbor objections.
Some locations were granted financial assistance in modernizing facilities and gear that directly benefitted performers and fans.
"The concept that revenue from performances in big venues helps the smaller venues, where it begins for artists like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has commented.
Fender is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
When Pulp received the award in the year 1996 for their album Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker stated that the group would contribute their prize money to the non-profit the charity.
In 2002, artist Ms Dynamite divided her bounty among multiple charities, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I contributed a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," she told a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective gave their winnings to the local youth club that supported their band, alongside other grassroots music organisations.
And the 1994 recipients M People donated their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the disease.
"The victory was sufficient," remarked artist Heather Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our victory impacted the lives of others."
In the past week, the MVT shared it had saved several grassroots venues in that region, by transferring them to public stewardship.
One venue in the city and the second in Bristol were purchased under the community ownership program, which is backed by a national body and music fans who buy "stakes" in the venues.
