How we vet athletes — inside the trust & verification…

The single biggest question we get from new members is a fair one: "How do I know these athletes are real?" It is the right question to ask. Most crowdfunding platforms let anyone claim to be anything, and the burden of due diligence sits with the person handing over money.

ralli is built the other way around. Every athlete on the platform has been through a structured verification process before their profile ever accepts an allocation. This guide walks through exactly what that process looks like — so you know precisely what "verified" means on ralli, and why it matters.

Why we verify — the problem we are solving

Emerging athletes are, by definition, not household names. They may not have a Wikipedia page, a major sponsor, or a well-known agent. That is exactly why they need backing — and exactly what makes them harder to verify at a glance.

Without a verification layer, a platform like ralli would sit somewhere between a GoFundMe and a lucky dip. Members would have no way to tell a genuine national-team hopeful from someone with a good camera and a compelling story. So we built the layer.

The four stages of ralli verification

Every athlete application moves through four distinct stages. None are skippable. None are automated.

1. Identity & eligibility

Before we look at anything sport-specific, we confirm the person is who they say they are and legally able to be on the platform.

This includes government-issued photo ID, proof of address, and — for anyone under 18 — guardian consent through our Guardian-Managed Athletes framework (covered in a separate post). We also confirm the athlete is not currently under a doping ban, competition suspension, or any active integrity investigation with their national federation.

This is deliberately boring and deliberately non-negotiable. It is the foundation everything else sits on.

2. Sporting credentials

Next we look at what the athlete actually does. Every applicant provides:

Their current competitive level and recent results (national, state, club, junior, development squad)
Federation or club registration numbers where applicable
Any current or recent squad selections, scholarships or academy placements
Coaching setup — who coaches them, where, and how often

We cross-reference this against publicly available data: federation databases, event results, ranking systems, university sport pages, and news archives. If a claim cannot be independently corroborated, we ask for evidence. If evidence is not forthcoming, the application does not proceed.

3. Reference checks

Every athlete must nominate at least two references from inside their sport. Typically that is a head coach and a program director, club president, or federation development lead. We contact these references directly — by phone, not just email — and ask structured questions: How long have you worked with this athlete? What is their trajectory? Are they currently in good standing? Would you back them with your own money?

References are not a formality. They are the single most useful signal we get. A coach who has spent thousands of hours with an athlete knows things no CV can show.

4. Story & intent review

The final stage is human. A member of the ralli team reads the athlete profile in full and asks: does this add up? Is the funding ask proportional? Is the milestone plan realistic? Is this an athlete our members will be proud to back?

Roughly one in three applications gets flagged at this stage and sent back for revisions or additional evidence. Some are declined outright. That is the point of the stage existing.

What "verified" actually means on ralli

When you see a live athlete profile on ralli, all four stages have been completed and signed off. That means:

Their identity is confirmed
Their sporting claims are corroborated
Their coaches have vouched for them on the record
A human at ralli has reviewed and approved their story

It does not mean they are guaranteed to become a world champion. Nothing can guarantee that. What it does mean is that the person you are backing is the person they say they are, doing the sport they say they do, at the level they claim.

Ongoing monitoring — verification is not a one-off

Approval is the beginning, not the end. Once an athlete is live on ralli, we continue to monitor:

Results and rankings — auto-checked against federation feeds where available, manually reviewed monthly otherwise
Milestone claims — every ARP-eligible milestone requires evidence (official results, selection letters, media coverage, contracts) before it is approved and rewards are paid out
Community reports — any member can flag concerns about an athlete via their profile, and every flag is investigated
Suspension events — if an athlete receives a ban or sanction from their federation, funding is paused pending review

Guardian-managed accounts add a second layer

For athletes under 18, verification runs alongside the Guardian-Managed Athletes framework. A parent or legal guardian holds the account, controls withdrawals, and countersigns milestones. That means for junior athletes, every dollar is protected by two signatures — ralli's and the guardian's — before it moves.

Why this matters for backers

Every hour we spend on verification is an hour saved on your side. You do not need to research each athlete's federation ranking, phone their coach, or squint at photocopied selection letters. That work has been done, is being done, and will keep being done as long as they are on the platform.

That is the difference between backing an athlete on ralli and sending money to a stranger on the internet. Same generosity. Radically different risk.

What comes next

Verification is one pillar of trust. Transparent money flow is the other — where does the money actually go, and how do you know? That is the subject of the next post in this series.

How we vet athletes — inside the trust & verification process