Will my niece have to pay taxes on fundraisers she has had for her eye surgeries.?

My niece is 25, she was born legally blind with a condition called aniridia, absence of the iris, she got through school and college by holding books about 5 or 6 inches from her face, she lived with a roomate while in college as she will never be able to drive. Last year, she went on vacation with her parents(my sister) and they discovered her sight was alot worse, she was bumping into things, could not read any menus which she used to do, etc. They took her to different eye doctors and found out that a surgeon in Ohio (we are in SC) could do several surgeries on each eye, they are still in the experimental stage, but so far she has had 3 surgeries on each eye, each stay for surgery requires that they stay in Ohio for 10 days in hotels and eating etc. up there while she goes back and forth to make sure she doesn't reject the meds and her eye is doing well after each surgery. She now has beautiful irises, she was able to pick her color and she chose a blueish green. She also has lots of pressure, glaucoma and cataracts, they have done some work on those but are not finished. She is on disability even though she works a part time job at a department store and she has medicaid, but most of these surgeries are not covered as they are in the experimental stage. The next surgeries she willl have, that is one eye at a time, will be stem cell replacement, they will be up there 10 days again, then home and back for other eye.This is not FDA approved in US yet,but I heard it is fixing to be approved soon, but that could mean a year or 2. We have had various yard sales, bake sales,a poker run, etc, to raise money for them to pay the docs, some want money up front. Cooks for Christ put on a fundraiser yesterday for her at the fire department and everyone worked it, maybe about 350 to 400 volunteers, afterwards we stood in a circle and said a prayer of thanks and they made the announcement that the bake sale had made $1100 and the total of everything was $19,400 which they took over in a container to my niece and handed it to her. She has an account set up at a bank for donations and our church said there are still more donations coming in. Will they have to pay taxes on this, my boss just brought it up and I told her I have no idea. If anyone can give me some information, I would appreciate it. Thanks.