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Sam Fender has handed over the complete sum of his £25k award prize money to the MVT, which functions to save the UK's grassroots music venues.

Fender was given the cheque on October 16 as his third album the album was declared the best record of the previous year.

The musician has opted to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function grassroots venues played in his beginning days.

"As an artist would not have achieved what I am doing today if it hadn't been for all the shows I did around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was starting out," remarked Sam Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are struggling."

From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – about 16 percent of the total UK scene.

Recently, well-known musicians including Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to support the industry, by applying a small levy to their ticket prices, which supports smaller concert halls.

Sam Fender also joined in, raising in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to help 38 small stages across the UK.

These funds helped locations that were confronting imminent closure due to issues stemming from flooding, blazes and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.

Additional spaces obtained financial assistance in improving infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that positively impacted musicians and audiences.

"The idea that money from shows in large arenas helps the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.

He is among several artists to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to charitable organizations.

When they received the trophy in 1996 for their record Different Class, vocalist Jarvis Cocker declared that the band would contribute their cash to the organization War Child.

During 2002, artist the artist shared her prize between multiple organizations, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"I also contributed a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked better apparatus," she told outlets.

Previously, they contributed their funds to the community center that nurtured their band, as well as other independent music bodies.

Also winners that year they donated their prize to a MS organization after a friend was found to have the disease.

"Receiving the award was ample," stated singer the singer. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the cherry, because we had the honor. So our winning affected somebody else's life."

In the past week, the Music Venues Trust shared it had protected several small stages in that region, by bringing them into public stewardship.

One venue in the city and The Croft in Bristol were purchased under the public acquisition initiative, which is supported by the arts council and music fans who acquire "ownership units" in the buildings.