The artist has handed over the entirety of his £25k honor winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which works to preserve the United Kingdom's grassroots concert spaces.
He was awarded the prize on mid-October as his latest record the album was named the outstanding release of the past year.
The musician has chosen to give the cash to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function small stages fulfilled in his early career.
"I would not have achieved this success if it wasn't for all the gigs I did around the region, and beyond, when I was starting out," said Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these spaces have shut down – about 16% of the total UK scene.
Recently, top acts like the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all aided the MVT in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by adding a modest fee to their admission fees, which supports smaller concert halls.
He also participated, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to assist numerous local spots across Britain.
These funds helped locations that were dealing with possible closure due to issues caused by flooding, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as licensing issues, court cases and noise complaints.
Additional spaces obtained financial assistance in upgrading facilities and gear that positively impacted performers and audiences.
"The idea that revenue from concerts in big venues backs the independent spots, where it kicks off for musicians like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has stated.
The musician is far from the only musician to give his Mercury Prize prize money to good deeds.
Back when they earned the prize in the year 1996 for their release Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would give their winnings to the organization War Child.
During 2002, musician Ms Dynamite shared her bounty between a few organizations, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.
"And I gave a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they required updated gear," the artist told a publication.
In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their prize money to the youth organization that supported their act, in addition to other local music groups.
And the 1994 recipients they contributed their winnings to a MS organization after a friend was found to have the condition.
"Winning was ample," stated singer Small. "The cash was the bonus but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected another person's life."
Recently, the trust announced it had rescued a couple of small stages in that region, by bringing them into local control.
The first in Southampton and The Croft in Bristol were acquired under the public acquisition initiative, which is backed by the arts council and enthusiasts who purchase "ownership units" in the venues.
