The Clore Social Leadership Programme has unveiled the names of the 18 new fellows who will join the scheme in January.
The programme was established in 2008 to improve the quality of leadership in the third sector.
The latest intake includes Nicola Jeffrey, chief executive of Target Tuberculosis, Emily Lomax, head of volunteering at VSO UK, and Nathalie Walters, chief executive of Safe and Sound Derby, which works to end child sexual exploitation.
The new appointments bring the total number of participants since the programme began to 65. The new fellows will complete the scheme either full-time for one year or part-time over two years.
Their studies will include attending residential courses, having coaching and mentoring and doing an extended secondment and a practice-based research project.
Dame Mary Marsh, founding director of the programme, said the fellows were embarking on the programme at a time of great challenge for the sector.
"Good leaders will take advantage of this as we face the need to change business models in part through diversified funding streams," she said. "Great leaders will inspire those around them to respond innovatively and creatively."
Marsh said it struck her during the interview process that few people were getting sufficient feedback at work. "All the candidates we interviewed found completing the process of applying hugely beneficial because it made them find time to stop and reflect on themselves," she said.
"I believe this has to be a fundamental part of the way all leaders in the sector operate if they are to enable organisations to achieve their ultimate aims."
The Clore Duffield Foundation is contributing £2m for the first four years of the programme. Other funders include the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
The 2013 fellows
Ruth Bergan, coordinator of the Trade Justice Movement
Sinem Cakir, mentor with the Wilderness Foundation UK
Judith Cross, care and support implementation lead at Midland Heart
Tom Doust, trustee and co-founder of the education charity Envision
Cathy Elliott, chief executive of Community Foundations for Merseyside and Lancashire
Ceinwen Giles, trustee of Shine Cancer Support
Jack Graham, founder of the social venture Year Here
Ruth Ibegbuna, founder and director of the youth intervention project Reclaim
Nicola Jeffery, chief executive of the development charity Target Tuberculosis
Michele Lee, co-founder and director of the social enterprise ListeningWise
William Lilley, from the social housing provider Bromford Group
Emily Lomax, head of volunteering at VSO UK.
La Toyah McAllister, project manager at No One Living on the Streets
Michael Pitchford, who oversaw programmes at the Joseph Rowntree Trust
Andy Shipley, chair of Fieldfare Trust, which promotes countryside access for disabled people
Rachael Smith, deputy head of the homelessness charity project Crisis Christmas
Kate Swade, development manager at Shared Assets, which promotes community management of environmental assets
Nathalie Walters, chief executive of Safe and Sound Derby, which works to end child sexual exploitation.