Sam Fender has handed over the full amount of his £25k award cash to the MVT, which works to preserve the UK's grassroots live music spots.
The star was given the cheque on 16 October as his latest record People Watching was chosen as the top album of the last 12 months.
Fender has decided to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the vital role local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.
"I would not have achieved my current career if it wasn't for all the performances I performed around the area, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," said Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, more than 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – roughly 16% of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, top acts including Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its initiatives to help venues survive, by including a small levy to their ticket costs, which benefits independent venues.
He also joined in, generating in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to assist 38 local spots across Britain.
The donation assisted venues that were dealing with imminent closure due to challenges arising from floods, fires and personal losses, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.
Some locations received financial assistance in upgrading amenities and gear that directly benefitted performers and concertgoers.
"The idea that revenue from performances in major spaces backs the smaller venues, where it begins for musicians like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has stated.
The musician is far from the only musician to give his Mercury Prize winnings to charitable organizations.
When Pulp received the prize in the mid-90s for their record Different Class, lead singer Jarvis Cocker stated that the band would donate their winnings to the non-profit War Child.
That year, artist Ms Dynamite shared her bounty among multiple good causes, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a £1,000 to the center, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked better apparatus," the artist explained to a publication.
In recent years, the band contributed their prize money to the local youth club that supported their group, as well as other local music groups.
And 1994 winners they donated their prize to a charity for MS after a friend was found to have the disease.
"Winning was quite enough," remarked singer the singer. "The prize was the extra but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our victory affected the lives of others."
Last week, the Music Venues Trust announced it had saved several small stages in south-east England, by bringing them into community ownership.
The first in Southampton and the second in the city were bought under the public acquisition program, which is supported by a national body and supporters who purchase "stakes" in the buildings.
