Philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein is offering to pay the college scholarships of dozens of students who were promised the money by The Education Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy organization that went into receivership in June.

Feinstein said he is concerned that several of the students will be unable to attend college unless they receive the $2,000 scholarships. He is also troubled that several hundred thousand dollars in a scholarship fund he established 15 years ago, which The Education Partnership oversaw, is apparently missing.

“We started that fund many years ago to honor my late father after he passed away and it had $2.4 million to start with and it’s benefited more than 400 students over the years,” Feinstein said yesterday. “And when the Education Partnership took it over a few years ago, there was about $1 million left. Well, what happened to that money? That’s what I want to know.”

Feinstein said that last year he was informed that about $763,000 remained in the Louis Feinstein Memorial Fund. But The Education Partnership had just $357,000 left when it closed its doors.

A receiver in charge of sorting through The Education Partnership’s finances said the organization’s records are in disarray. Receiver Allan M. Shine said money from various sources — federal funds, scholarship money, operational expenses and other monies — were apparently mingled rather than kept in separate accounts.

A forensic accountant has since been appointed by Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein to analyze the group’s finances and determine how much money the organization owes to individual creditors, including scholarship recipients. Other debts include a $305,000 lien by Sovereign Bank; $50,000 in unpaid rent for the organization’s office; and thousands of dollars owed to instructors who claim the organization never paid them for an afterschool program in Providence.

Last month, Shine’s law partner, Diane Finkle, told Silverstein that as many as 49 college students are owed Feinstein scholarships. The scholarships give recipients who study in Rhode Island colleges up to $2,000 a year for four years plus a $2,000 bonus after the student graduates college, for a total of $10,000.

The next court date is Tuesday at 9:30, when the accounting firm is scheduled to provide an update on its review.

Richard S. Mittleman, a bankruptcy lawyer who represents Valerie Forti, former executive director of the organization, has said that he and his client decline to comment on the matter.

There may be even more affected students, as The Education Partnership apparently oversaw a second scholarship program: the Charles A. Morvillo Scholarship, which “awards $12,500 in scholarships each year, to two seniors from either a Providence or a North Providence high school,” according to the organization’s 2006 Annual Report.

Feinstein said the affected students should send him copies of their Feinstein scholarship award letters, and he will give the money directly to the college they are attending for the 2008-2009 school year.

“I will advance those payments and I just hope I will be paid back, pending the resolution of the case,” Feinstein said.

Feinstein established a scholarship fund in memory of his late father, Louis, in 1993. It was administered for 10 years by the Public Education Fund, which merged with the Business Education Roundtable in 2003, forming a new entity, the business-backed Education Partnership.

Alan Shawn Feinstein can be contacted at 37 Alhambra Circle, Cranston, RI 02905; and by phone at (401) 467-5155.

jjordan@projo.com