The artist has handed over the entirety of his £25k honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which works to preserve the UK's grassroots music venues.
The star was awarded the award on mid-October as his third album the album was chosen as the best record of the last 12 months.
The musician has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in appreciation of the crucial part small stages had in his early career.
"I personally couldn't be pursuing my current career if it wasn't for all the shows I played around the area, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked the artist. "These venues are iconic, but they are facing challenges."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these locations have shut down – about one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, top acts including the band Pulp, the group Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a modest fee to their ticket prices, which supports local stages.
Sam Fender also participated, generating over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to help numerous local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds assisted venues that were facing possible closure due to challenges caused by water damage, fires and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Other venues were granted financial assistance in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that helped musicians and fans.
"The idea that revenue from performances in big venues helps the independent spots, where it begins for musicians like me, is just common sense," Fender has stated.
Fender is not the first artist to contribute his award winnings to good deeds.
Back when Pulp received the prize in the mid-90s for their release the album, vocalist Jarvis Cocker stated that the act would give their winnings to the organization War Child.
During 2002, musician Ms Dynamite split her prize among several charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I gave a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked updated gear," the artist explained to the media.
In recent years, Ezra Collective contributed their prize money to the youth organization that nurtured their group, alongside other local music groups.
Also the 1994 recipients M People donated their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the condition.
"The victory was quite enough," stated vocalist the singer. "The cash was the cherry on top but we could do without the cherry, because we had the honor. So our winning affected the lives of others."
Recently, the trust revealed it had protected several small stages in south-east England, by bringing them into local control.
The first in the city and The Croft in the city were bought under the Own Our Venues program, which is supported by a national body and music fans who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.
