Sam Fender has handed over the complete sum of his £25,000 honor cash to the MVT, which functions to save the UK's small live music spots.
The star was given the award on mid-October as his latest record his work was named the outstanding release of the past year.
The musician has decided to give the cash to the MVT, in recognition of the crucial part small stages had in his early career.
"I personally would not have achieved this success if it hadn't been for all the gigs I did around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked the artist. "These spaces are legendary, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, at least 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – approximately 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their admission fees, which supports smaller concert halls.
He also participated, raising in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to support thirty-eight grassroots venues across the UK.
The money assisted locations that were confronting imminent closure due to challenges caused by water damage, fires and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and sound issues.
Some locations received funding support in improving facilities and sound and lighting systems that helped performers and audiences.
"The concept that revenue from performances in large arenas supports the smaller venues, where it begins for musicians like me, is just logical," the star has said.
Fender is not the first artist to donate his award winnings to charitable organizations.
When Pulp received the trophy in the year 1996 for their release their work, lead singer Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would give their prize money to the charity War Child.
That year, rapper and singer the artist divided her award among several good causes, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell charity.
"Additionally, I donated a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their classes, because I did gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," she shared with a publication.
In recent years, they donated their winnings to the youth organization that supported their act, as well as other independent music bodies.
Also winners that year the group donated their winnings to a charity for MS after a close contact was identified with the illness.
"Winning was sufficient," remarked singer the singer. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the extra, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched somebody else's life."
Recently, the MVT shared it had rescued several grassroots venues in the South East, by transferring them to public stewardship.
The Joiners in Southampton and the second in Bristol were bought under the Own Our Venues program, which is backed by a national body and enthusiasts who purchase "stakes" in the properties.
