Quarto for Evaluators: Turn Your Analysis into Auto-Updated Donor Reports – Nic | Data

Author

Nichodemus Amollo

Published

November 12, 2025

Why Quarto Is a Game-Changer

Typical M&E reporting workflow:

Do analysis in R/Excel
Copy charts into Word
Manually update every quarter

Quarto lets you:

Keep analysis and report in the same place
Regenerate everything when new data arrives
Output HTML, PDF, and PowerPoint from one source

What a Quarto Workflow Looks Like

Import and clean data in R/Python
Calculate indicators
Create charts and tables
Write interpretation text
Render to:
- index.html
- report.pdf
- slides.html (presentations)

You change the data and press render—the report updates.

Mini Playground

This browser-based code cell shows the kind of quick indicator summary you can keep inside a Quarto report and rerun whenever the data changes.

Portfolio Idea

Build a Quarto report that:

Summarizes key indicators for a programme
Includes:
- Data quality section
- Trends over time
- Equity breakdowns
Renders as:
- HTML for the web
- PDF for donors

This shows that you understand both analysis and communication, which is exactly what evaluators need.

---
title: "Quarto for Evaluators: Turn Your Analysis into Auto-Updated Donor Reports"
subtitle: "Stop copy-pasting tables into Word—generate clean, consistent reports on demand"
author: "Nichodemus Amollo"
date: "2025-11-12"
categories: [Quarto, R, Reporting, Monitoring & Evaluation]
image: "/img/blog-mande.svg"
filters:
  - webr
webr:
  show-startup-message: false
---

## Why Quarto Is a Game-Changer

Typical M&amp;E reporting workflow:

- Do analysis in R/Excel
- Copy charts into Word
- Manually update every quarter

Quarto lets you:

- Keep analysis and report in the **same place**
- Regenerate everything when new data arrives
- Output HTML, PDF, and PowerPoint from one source

---

## What a Quarto Workflow Looks Like

1. Import and clean data in R/Python
2. Calculate indicators
3. Create charts and tables
4. Write interpretation text
5. Render to:
   - `index.html`
   - `report.pdf`
   - `slides.html` (presentations)

You change the data and **press render**—the report updates.

## Mini Playground

This browser-based code cell shows the kind of quick indicator summary you can keep inside a Quarto report and rerun whenever the data changes.

```{webr-r}
programme <- data.frame(
  county = c("Kisumu", "Kisumu", "Homa Bay", "Siaya", "Siaya"),
  month = c("Jan", "Feb", "Jan", "Jan", "Feb"),
  visits = c(128, 141, 96, 87, 111)
)

aggregate(visits ~ county, data = programme, FUN = sum)
```

---

## Portfolio Idea

Build a Quarto report that:

- Summarizes key indicators for a programme
- Includes:
  - Data quality section
  - Trends over time
  - Equity breakdowns
- Renders as:
  - HTML for the web
  - PDF for donors

This shows that you understand **both analysis and communication**, which is exactly what evaluators need.