Sam Fender has donated the full amount of his £25,000 honor cash to the trust for venues, which functions to protect the Britain's small music venues.
He was awarded the award on October 16 as his third album People Watching was declared the outstanding release of the last 12 months.
Fender has decided to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the essential function small stages played in his initial steps.
"I personally couldn't be pursuing my current career if it hadn't been for all the performances I played around the region, and further afield, when I was beginning," remarked Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these locations have shut down – roughly 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, well-known musicians like the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which supports independent venues.
Sam Fender also participated, generating over £100k on his live tour to support thirty-eight local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds assisted spaces that were confronting potential shutdown due to challenges arising from flooding, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and sound issues.
Other venues obtained monetary aid in improving facilities and technical equipment that positively impacted artists and concertgoers.
"The notion that funds from shows in major spaces helps the local stages, where it begins for artists like me, is just logical," the star has commented.
He is far from the only musician to give his award winnings to good deeds.
In the band received the award in the mid-90s for their release their work, vocalist Cocker announced that the band would give their prize money to the organization War Child.
In 2002, musician Ms Dynamite split her award between several charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"I also gave a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," she explained to outlets.
In recent years, Ezra Collective contributed their prize money to the community center that developed their act, as well as other grassroots music organisations.
Additionally winners that year they contributed their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was identified with the condition.
"Receiving the award was quite enough," stated artist Heather Small. "The money was the bonus but we didn't require the extra, because we had the main prize. So our winning impacted somebody else's life."
Recently, the trust announced it had rescued several small stages in that region, by placing them under community ownership.
One venue in that area and the second in that location were purchased under the public acquisition scheme, which is supported by the arts council and music fans who buy "shares" in the properties.
