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The star has given the full amount of his £25k award cash to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the United Kingdom's independent music venues.

He was given the award on October 16 as his third album People Watching was declared the top album of the previous year.

The musician has opted to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the vital role grassroots venues played in his early career.

"I wouldn't be doing my current career if it weren't for all the shows I performed around the area, and elsewhere, when I was starting out," said the artist. "These venues are iconic, but they are in difficulty."

Beginning in 2023, at least 150 of these venues have shut down – about 16% of the entire UK sector.

Recently, well-known musicians such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all supported the trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by applying a small levy to their ticket costs, which goes to help smaller concert halls.

Sam Fender also participated, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist numerous small stages across the UK.

The money supported spaces that were confronting imminent closure due to issues caused by floods, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as permit problems, court cases and noise complaints.

Some locations received financial assistance in upgrading facilities and sound and lighting systems that helped artists and fans.

"The idea that money from performances in major spaces backs the local stages, where it kicks off for musicians like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has commented.

Fender is among several artists to give his Mercury Prize prize money to worthy causes.

When Pulp won the award in the year 1996 for their release the album, frontman Jarvis Cocker stated that the act would donate their cash to the non-profit War Child.

In 2002, artist Ms Dynamite split her bounty between a few organizations, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"And I donated a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they required better apparatus," she explained to outlets.

Previously, the band contributed their winnings to the local youth club that developed their act, as well as other independent music bodies.

Additionally winners that year they donated their award to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the condition.

"Receiving the award was quite enough," said artist the singer. "The prize was the extra but we didn't need the extra, because we had the main prize. So our winning impacted the lives of others."

In the past week, the trust shared it had saved several grassroots venues in the South East, by bringing them into local control.

The first in that area and the other in that location were bought under the Own Our Venues program, which is funded by the arts council and enthusiasts who buy "stakes" in the properties.