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Sam Fender has donated the entirety of his £25k honor winnings to the trust for venues, which functions to preserve the United Kingdom's small music venues.

Fender was presented with the award on 16 October as his latest record the album was chosen as the top album of the previous year.

Fender has decided to hand the money over to the MVT, in appreciation of the essential function grassroots venues played in his early career.

"As an artist would not have achieved this success if it weren't for all the shows I played around the North East, and further afield, when I was just getting going," stated Sam Fender. "These locations are renowned, but they are struggling."

Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these locations have shut down – about 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

Recently, major artists like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by adding a modest fee to their ticket prices, which goes to help local stages.

Sam Fender also took part, generating in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to assist 38 small stages across Britain.

The donation helped locations that were confronting possible closure due to difficulties arising from water damage, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and sound issues.

Some locations received monetary aid in modernizing amenities and technical equipment that directly benefitted musicians and concertgoers.

"The idea that funds from shows in major spaces helps the local stages, where it begins for musicians like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.

The musician is far from the only musician to give his award winnings to worthy causes.

Back when they won the trophy in 1996 for their record their work, frontman Cocker stated that the group would donate their winnings to the organization the charity.

That year, artist Ms Dynamite split her prize across several organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"I also contributed a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," Ms Dynamite shared with outlets.

In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their funds to the youth organization that nurtured their group, as well as other independent music bodies.

And the 1994 recipients M People contributed their prize to a charity for MS after a close contact was found to have the disease.

"The victory was sufficient," stated artist Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't require the extra, because we had the main prize. So our success affected somebody else's life."

Recently, the trust revealed it had rescued several local spots in the South East, by transferring them to public stewardship.

One venue in that area and The Croft in that location were purchased under the public acquisition scheme, which is backed by Arts Council England and music fans who purchase "shares" in the buildings.