Alan Shawn Feinstein (June 25, 1931 – September 7, 2024) was an American philanthropist and mail-order and internet promoter.
[1] He attended Boston Teachers' College at night and taught elementary and junior high school in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
As part of an extended trip to Thailand in 1965, Feinstein had a private audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
In 1984, Prentice Hall published The Four Treasures of Alan Shawn Feinstein, a book written by a New York author, Milton Pierce.
[5] Feinstein required that institutions that he aided be renamed in either his honor or in the names of his family members, a practice that has sometimes resulted in controversy due to the source of his funds and also because of his purchases of time on local television stations advertising his donations.
[8] Feinstein offered a payback program to Rhode Island students who join in supporting his campaign to fight hunger.
[9] Alan Shawn Feinstein's 2012 15th annual spring $1 million giveaway to fight hunger raised $230,664,188 nationwide.
In 2000, he entered into an agreement with a Tufts professor, J. Larry Brown, to give $3 million to start another similar center at Brandeis University.
In exchange for a total of $1.4 million paid over five years, the theater would offer 50,000 free tickets to students participating in Feinstein's community service programs, offer discounted admission to students who have performed good deeds, and donate a portion of these ticket sales to the Rhode Island Hunger Fund.
After the theater was purchased by National Amusements in January 2008, The Feinstein name was removed, and the community programs were suspended.