Sam Fender has handed over the complete sum of his £25,000 award prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to save the UK's independent music venues.
He was presented with the prize on October 16 as his third album People Watching was declared the top album of the previous year.
The musician has chosen to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in appreciation of the crucial part local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.
"I personally couldn't be pursuing this success if it hadn't been for all the shows I played around the North East, and further afield, when I was starting out," said Fender. "These spaces are iconic, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – roughly one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
In the last year, top acts including Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the trust in its efforts to keep the scene afloat, by including a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits local stages.
Sam Fender also joined in, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to help thirty-eight small stages across the UK.
The money assisted locations that were facing possible closure due to issues stemming from flooding, fires and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Some locations obtained financial assistance in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that directly benefitted artists and audiences.
"The idea that funds from shows in major spaces supports the smaller venues, where it all starts for artists like me, is just common sense," the star has said.
He is far from the only musician to contribute his award prize money to worthy causes.
Back when Pulp earned the award in the mid-90s for their record the album, vocalist the singer stated that the band would give their prize money to the organization War Child.
In 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite shared her prize among several organizations, like the children's charity and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"And I contributed a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," she told outlets.
Previously, the band gave their winnings to the youth organization that nurtured their act, as well as other grassroots music organisations.
Also winners that year M People gave their winnings to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was found to have the disease.
"The victory was sufficient," said artist Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we could do without the cherry, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted the lives of others."
Recently, the trust revealed it had saved several grassroots venues in the South East, by bringing them into public stewardship.
The first in that area and the other in the city were bought under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by a national body and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the properties.
