The star has donated the full amount of his £25,000 award winnings to the trust for venues, which functions to preserve the United Kingdom's small music venues.
Fender was awarded the cheque on October 16 as his latest record People Watching was named the top album of the last 12 months.
The musician has decided to donate the funds to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages played in his early career.
"I would not have achieved this success if it weren't for all the gigs I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," remarked the artist. "These venues are iconic, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, at least 150 of these locations have permanently closed – approximately 16% of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, top acts like Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports local stages.
Sam Fender also took part, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist thirty-eight small stages across Britain.
The donation assisted venues that were confronting possible closure due to difficulties stemming from flooding, fires and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces received funding support in improving infrastructure and gear that helped artists and audiences.
"The idea that revenue from concerts in large arenas helps the smaller venues, where it all starts for performers like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has stated.
He is not the first artist to give his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.
When the band won the trophy in the mid-90s for their record Different Class, vocalist the singer announced that the band would give their prize money to the non-profit War Child.
That year, artist she shared her prize across several organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I contributed a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they required new equipment," she told a publication.
Two years ago, they contributed their prize money to the youth organization that nurtured their band, as well as other independent music bodies.
And 1994 winners M People donated their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was found to have the condition.
"Winning was quite enough," stated singer Small. "The money was the bonus but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our success impacted the lives of others."
Recently, the Music Venues Trust shared it had protected a couple of grassroots venues in south-east England, by placing them under public stewardship.
The Joiners in that area and the second in Bristol were bought under the Own Our Venues program, which is backed by Arts Council England and music fans who buy "ownership units" in the venues.
