The artist has donated the complete sum of his £25,000 award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to save the Britain's grassroots music venues.
The star was presented with the award on mid-October as his latest record People Watching was declared the best record of the last 12 months.
Fender has chosen to give the cash to the trust, in recognition of the crucial part grassroots venues fulfilled in his beginning days.
"I personally would not have achieved my current career if it wasn't for all the gigs I performed around the North East, and beyond, when I was beginning," stated Sam Fender. "These venues are renowned, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, at least 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – approximately one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, top acts like the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the MVT in its initiatives to support the industry, by adding a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits local stages.
He also took part, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to help thirty-eight small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds helped locations that were facing potential shutdown due to challenges arising from water damage, blazes and bereavements, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces received financial assistance in upgrading infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted performers and audiences.
"The concept that revenue from shows in big venues backs the independent spots, where it begins for artists like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has said.
Fender is far from the only musician to contribute his award funds to worthy causes.
When they won the award in the mid-90s for their release the album, vocalist Jarvis Cocker announced that the band would donate their prize money to the non-profit the charity.
In 2002, musician the artist divided her bounty between multiple organizations, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell charity.
"And I gave a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was younger and they needed better apparatus," the artist told a publication.
In recent years, Ezra Collective donated their prize money to the local youth club that nurtured their group, as well as other independent music bodies.
Also winners that year M People donated their award to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the condition.
"Receiving the award was ample," stated singer Heather Small. "The cash was the extra but we could do without the bonus, because we had the cake. So our winning affected the lives of others."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust revealed it had saved several grassroots venues in the South East, by placing them under community ownership.
The first in Southampton and the second in Bristol were bought under the public acquisition program, which is backed by Arts Council England and supporters who acquire "stakes" in the properties.
