The star has given the full amount of his £25k honor prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to save the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
He was presented with the cheque on October 16 as his new release the album was chosen as the best record of the previous year.
He has opted to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role local spots fulfilled in his early career.
"As an artist would not have achieved what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I played around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked the artist. "These venues are legendary, but they are struggling."
Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these venues have ceased operations – roughly one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, top acts such as the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to keep the scene afloat, by including a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits independent venues.
Sam Fender also took part, raising more than £100,000 on his live tour to assist thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.
These funds helped spaces that were confronting potential shutdown due to challenges stemming from water damage, blazes and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces were granted funding support in upgrading infrastructure and gear that directly benefitted artists and fans.
"The notion that money from shows in big venues backs the independent spots, where it begins for musicians like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has stated.
Fender is far from the only musician to donate his Mercury Prize winnings to good deeds.
Back when the band won the award in the mid-90s for their release the album, frontman the singer stated that the act would donate their cash to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, musician Ms Dynamite split her award between multiple good causes, such as the children's charity and a Sickle Cell charity.
"And I donated a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was younger and they required updated gear," the artist told a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective contributed their funds to the community center that developed their act, as well as other independent music bodies.
And 1994 winners they gave their award to a charity for MS after a close contact was identified with the disease.
"Winning was ample," remarked artist the singer. "The cash was the bonus but we could do without the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected the lives of others."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust shared it had protected several grassroots venues in the South East, by placing them under community ownership.
The Joiners in that area and the other in the city were acquired under the community ownership scheme, which is backed by the arts council and supporters who buy "shares" in the venues.
