The artist has given the full amount of his £25k award winnings to the trust for venues, which functions to protect the United Kingdom's independent music venues.
Fender was given the award on October 16 as his third album his work was chosen as the outstanding release of the past year.
Fender has decided to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role grassroots venues played in his beginning days.
"I personally would not have achieved what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," stated Fender. "These locations are iconic, but they are facing challenges."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these venues have ceased operations – roughly 16% of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, major artists such as Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Sheeran have all supported the trust in its initiatives to keep the scene afloat, by including a modest fee to their admission fees, which supports smaller concert halls.
Fender also participated, generating over £100k on his live tour to help 38 small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation helped locations that were dealing with potential shutdown due to challenges stemming from flooding, fires and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and sound issues.
Some locations were granted monetary aid in upgrading infrastructure and technical equipment that directly benefitted musicians and audiences.
"The idea that revenue from performances in big venues helps the local stages, where it all starts for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has commented.
The musician is far from the only musician to give his award winnings to charitable organizations.
When Pulp won the award in the year 1996 for their record the album, vocalist the singer announced that the act would contribute their winnings to the organization War Child.
That year, musician Ms Dynamite divided her award among a few good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.
"Additionally, I donated a £1,000 to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked better apparatus," she shared with outlets.
In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their prize money to the community center that nurtured their band, in addition to other local music groups.
Additionally 1994 winners M People donated their award to a MS organization after a close contact was found to have the condition.
"Receiving the award was quite enough," said singer Heather Small. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our victory touched the lives of others."
Recently, the trust shared it had protected two grassroots venues in south-east England, by bringing them into community ownership.
The first in that area and The Croft in the city were bought under the public acquisition initiative, which is supported by a national body and supporters who buy "shares" in the venues.
