Time not displaying properly in an email generated by Power Automate

Question

I am trying to use the Raiser's Edge Gift Date Added in an email being sent out. I added a gift today at 11:10:43 EST. When the date appears in the email, it displays in UTC time 15:10:43.

To correct this, I am using an expression to convert the date/time

This is the expression I am using:

convertTimeZone(items('For_each')?['date_added'], 'UTC', 'Eastern Standard Time', 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss tt')

Unfortunately, the time still appears in the email in UTC and not EST.

As a test, if I replace the dynamic date above with a static UTC date (see below), the date reports correctly as EST.

convertTimeZone('2026-09-24T14:00:00Z', 'UTC', 'Eastern Standard Time', 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss tt')

I am assuming this has something to do with PA not seeing the dynamic value as a true date that can be converted?

Alex Wong · Answer

Try It also has problem, so API issue:

Erik Leaver · Answer

@Jeff Lallo Can you test with the TryIt so you can let us know if there's a bug with the API or with the connector. We have two different remediation pathways.

Alex Wong · Answer

There's a few issues, but first, is a BUG.

there is no reason why a gift would be added AFTER it is last modified. Looking at your date_added and date_modified, it is saying that the gift was added at 4PM EDT while it was last modified at 12PM EDT. the -04:00 is the timezone delta for EDT. when a gift is added, the date_added and last modified would be the same, and when gift is changed subsequently, the last modified would be later than date added.

So this is a bug, where date_added is actually recorded as UTC but slap on a EDT timezone. I strongly suggest you submit a support ticket and post it here for @Erik Leaver  to follow through on. By this way, this is not just you, I am seeing the same thing.

GIVEN the bug is fixed, what you should see is 2026-09-25T12:21:51.127-04:00 as the gift date added, which is already in your EDT timezone.

The other issue: convert time zone expression.

You are not wrong in your expression, but convertTimeZone is "smart" and see the -04:00 in your date_added, and know it is already in EDT, and therefore return 16:21.