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Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his £25k honor winnings to the trust for venues, which works to protect the United Kingdom's grassroots concert spaces.

The star was awarded the award on October 16 as his third album People Watching was declared the outstanding release of the past year.

He has chosen to hand the money over to the MVT, in appreciation of the crucial part small stages fulfilled in his early career.

"As an artist wouldn't be doing my current career if it wasn't for all the shows I did around the area, and beyond, when I was starting out," remarked Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are facing challenges."

Beginning in 2023, over 150 of these locations have ceased operations – roughly 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.

Over the past year, well-known musicians including Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to support the industry, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports smaller concert halls.

He also joined in, raising over £100k on his recent tour to help numerous local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.

The donation helped spaces that were dealing with potential shutdown due to challenges caused by flooding, blazes and personal losses, as well as licensing issues, conflicts and noise complaints.

Other venues obtained funding support in improving infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted performers and audiences.

"The notion that revenue from performances in large arenas backs the local stages, where it kicks off for musicians like me, is just logical," the star has commented.

Fender is not the first artist to contribute his honor funds to charitable organizations.

When the band won the award in the year 1996 for their record the album, lead singer Jarvis Cocker declared that the group would contribute their winnings to the organization the charity.

During 2002, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite split her bounty between multiple charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"And I donated a grand to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked better apparatus," the artist explained to outlets.

Previously, the band donated their funds to the youth organization that supported their band, alongside other grassroots music organisations.

Also 1994 winners the group donated their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was identified with the illness.

"The victory was quite enough," stated artist Heather Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we could do without the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our success affected another person's life."

In the past week, the MVT shared it had rescued several grassroots venues in south-east England, by transferring them to community ownership.

One venue in the city and The Croft in Bristol were purchased under the public acquisition scheme, which is backed by a national body and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.