Sam Fender has given the full amount of his £25k award prize money to the MVT, which operates to save the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
He was given the prize on mid-October as his latest record the album was chosen as the best record of the previous year.
Fender has decided to give the cash to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the vital role local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.
"I personally wouldn't be doing this success if it hadn't been for all the gigs I did around the North East, and further afield, when I was beginning," stated the artist. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, over 150 of these venues have permanently closed – about 16% 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 supported the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which goes to help local stages.
He also took part, raising in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to support thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.
The donation assisted venues that were facing possible closure due to difficulties stemming from water damage, fires and personal losses, as well as licensing issues, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Some locations were granted funding support in modernizing infrastructure and technical equipment that directly benefitted artists and audiences.
"The notion that money from performances in major spaces supports the independent spots, where it kicks off for performers like me, is just logical," the star has said.
Fender is among several artists to donate his honor winnings to charitable organizations.
When the band won the award in 1996 for their album Different Class, lead singer Jarvis Cocker declared that the band would give their winnings to the charity War Child.
During 2002, artist the artist split her prize among a few good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I donated a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," she told the media.
In recent years, they gave their prize money to the community center that nurtured their group, alongside other local music groups.
Also winners that year M People donated their award to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was diagnosed the illness.
"Receiving the award was sufficient," remarked singer the singer. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the cherry, because we had the honor. So our victory impacted the lives of others."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust revealed it had rescued a couple of small stages in south-east England, by placing them under community ownership.
One venue in Southampton and the second in Bristol were bought under the Own Our Venues program, which is supported by the arts council and supporters who buy "stakes" in the buildings.
