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Sam Fender has donated the full amount of his £25k honor winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the UK's grassroots concert spaces.

He was awarded the award on October 16 as his new release the album was declared the outstanding release of the previous year.

He has decided to hand the money over to the MVT, in recognition of the crucial part local spots had in his initial steps.

"I wouldn't be doing my current career if it wasn't for all the performances I performed around the North East, and beyond, when I was starting out," said Fender. "These spaces are renowned, but they are in difficulty."

Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these locations have shut down – about one-sixth of the entire UK sector.

Over the past year, top acts including Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their admission fees, which benefits independent venues.

Fender also took part, collecting over £100k on his recent tour to assist thirty-eight local spots across Britain.

The money helped locations that were facing possible closure due to issues arising from water damage, fires and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, conflicts and neighbor objections.

Other venues obtained funding support in improving facilities and technical equipment that helped performers and fans.

"The concept that money from performances in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just sensible," Fender has stated.

The musician is among several artists to donate his award prize money to good deeds.

When the band won the award in the year 1996 for their album the album, vocalist Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would give their winnings to the organization the charity.

During 2002, musician the artist divided her prize between multiple good causes, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.

"And I donated a grand to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they required better apparatus," the artist shared with outlets.

Previously, the band donated their funds to the community center that nurtured their band, alongside other grassroots music organisations.

Also 1994 winners they donated their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a acquaintance was diagnosed the disease.

"Winning was ample," said singer Heather Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted somebody else's life."

Recently, the trust revealed it had protected a couple of small stages in that region, by bringing them into public stewardship.

One venue in that area and the other in that location were bought under the community ownership scheme, which is backed by Arts Council England and music fans who buy "shares" in the properties.