His skydive in Orlando, Fla., will raise money to support entrepreneurs in Tanzania through Opportunity International, a nonprofit organization

Other locals who will jump include Sarah Green of Cary, who works at Extreme Entrepreneurship Education and Bill Morgenstern of Cary who is CEO of Chicago-based Opportunity International.

At age 11, Allis was helping senior citizens in his hometown of Bradenton, Fla., send photos to their grandkids for $5 an hour. The entrepreneurial spirit never left him, and he co-founded iContact with business partner Aaron Houghton during his freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill. iContact now employs 270 and posts $46 million in annual sales.

As his business prospered, Allis began looking for ways to help other people around the world succeed in their own business ventures. Allis spoke to correspondent Anne Woodman about how he is always looking for new adventures.

Q: Have you skydived before?

A: I have never been skydiving but I am very much looking forward to it. I'm excited.

Q: How did you get involved in "Jump for Opportunity" and decide to contribute?

A: I am part of Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, and iContact contributes on an annual basis. We each pledged to raise $5,000 as part of the skydive and we made a contribution in order to have the opportunity to jump.

Q: Skydiving is a small part of how you invest globally. What is your goal with the Humanity Fund?

A: We invest in other countries but we also invest here in North Carolina, with organizations like School House, EvoApp and LaunchBox. Our goal is to invest $500,000 in high-growth, socially-responsible countries in east Africa to help the communities grow. We want to produce a positive return on investment. While the S&P average growth might be 12 percent, we target S&P plus 5 - about 17 percent.

Q: Why east Africa?

A: Uganda was the first place I went about three years ago. My roommate from college started a solar-powered lighting company [Village Energy], and I visited him. I became very involved in the region: the food, the people, the weather. I saw tremendous economic potential and a tremendous amount of change happening there.

While the United States' GDP has grown about 1 to 1 1/2 percent over the last five years, east African countries' GDPs have grown about 7 percent. I hope to impact job creation and innovation by investing. My life's passion is working to reduce extreme poverty.

Q: How often do you travel there?

A: I go once or twice a year. I was just there over New Year's. I went to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. I have not been to Tanzania yet but I will definitely be going over the summer. I plan to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro; it's something I've been wanting to do.